Being Exceedingly Sorrowful

 There are many believers who have a wrong view of the Christian life. They think that if they are right with God and walking in the Spirit that everything will go well, and they will be feeling well all of the time. They think it is a sign of spiritual weakness to be sad or to be troubled by situations in life. Nothing could be farther from the truth. From time to time all of us have circumstances in our lives that cause us much pain, and we must let the Lord help us work through that pain. It won't just go away by itself.

Jesus is the best example of what I am saying. He was the sinless Son of God. He had a perfect relationship with the Father, and He was filled with the Spirit. However, the night before going to the cross He took His disciples to pray. (Mark 14:34) He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch." Jesus was not exaggerating. He thought He could die from the stress of facing the cross and knowing the torment that was before Him. We can learn from this.

God gave us emotions. When we have serious situations we feel deeply. This is true of times of great joy and times of great sorrow. This is part of being made in God's image. He has the same kinds of feelings according to the situations He is facing as Lord of the universe. Even Jesus needed to go aside and seek the comfort and strength of the Father. If He needed that, how much more do we need to pray and depend on God for healing and restoration and wisdom to face what we are going through?

Also, Jesus even needed others to be with Him and to pray with Him. He did not face the cross alone, and we must not face the difficulties of life by ourselves. We need true friends who will be there physically and emotionally to support us. We need them to pray with us. There is just something extra powerful about the prayer of two or more believers who have the same heart and the same request. That is how we get over being exceedingly sorrowful, and we go forward to face life's challenges like Jesus did.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Mark 16 and Luke 1-2.