I have not appreciated the turmoil that Jesus endured in the garden. His anguish with what was ahead was intense, wrestling with the Father in prayer. The relationship between Jesus and the Father was and is intimate, the same for what can be for us. Working out our circumstances and inner life with God our Father brings strength and endurance. Just like Jesus, many do not understand what we are going through. He invited the disciples to participate, to witness, but they fell asleep. May we be alert to those around us who are suffering that we may walk with them
“There is only one way for any of us to resolve the tension between the high ideals of the gospel and the grim reality of ourselves: to accept that we will never measure up, but that we do not have to. We are judged by the righteousness of the Christ who lives within, not our own.” - Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew
“Jesus addressed God as Abba, Father.79 “Abba” is Aramaic, the language Jesus would have normally spoken. It corresponds to the English term “Daddy.” Father translates the Greek word that expresses the same image. The image expresses deep, unquestioning trust in a parent and in that parent’s love. “Abba” was how Jesus commonly addressed God. It was also how he taught his disciples to address God (Matthew 6:9; Luke 11:2). This image of God was the underlying secret to Jesus’s intimate experience of prayer with God.” - Excerpt, Following Jesus: Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark by Steve Langford
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