Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
In Mark 14:39, Jesus continues in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “And again He went away, and prayed, and spake the same words.” We are commanded in Scripture not to use “vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking” (Matthew 6:7). However, this prohibition does not mean that we are to set aside what is uppermost in our minds and instead try to pray for something new every time. False religions teach that God can be manipulated by certain words and by the sheer volume of words. Sadly, certain false teachers who claim to be Christians teach much the same thing. We are not to engage in such blasphemy and heresy. Rather, we are to think about what we are praying for, and we are to pray for what we are thinking about. If we are troubled – as Jesus was as He approached the Cross – we must pray about what troubles us. We are to be persistent in this regard (Luke 18:1-8). I regularly pray for many of the same people and problems: these are the matters that I know about and care about. They are important to others and to me. We can pray about only the things that come to our attention. Like Jesus, we must continue in prayer about what dominates our thinking.