Nevertheless…

In the Garden of Gethsemane, we witness one of the most vulnerable moments in scripture. Jesus, fully aware of the cross before Him, falls on His face and prays, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” He prays it once. Then again. And again.

This episode of the PRESS Movement Podcast explores the power of repeated prayer and the strength found in surrender. Gethsemane shows us that asking God more than once is not a lack of faith. Even Jesus returned to the Father in His distress. The disciples, overwhelmed with sorrow, fell asleep. But Jesus let His sorrow drive Him to prayer.

And in that place of surrender, something shifted. Heaven did not remove the cup — but an angel came and strengthened Him.

“Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt” becomes the turning point. Prayer did not change the assignment, but it prepared Him to walk through it.

If you’ve ever struggled to submit, questioned God’s way, or felt the weight of obedience, this episode will remind you: strength is found in prayer, and God’s will is always worth yielding to.

Because prayer still reaches every single situation.

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Transcript

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Greetings, everybody. Welcome back to the Press Movement Podcast, as we are now journeying through the New Testament, and we are coming to perhaps the greatest event in history, aside from Jesus's birth.

I would have to say it is also his death and the way he chose to die and who he chose to die for. So leading up to the cross, we find ourselves in Matthew chapter 26. And today to help walk us through that prayer, we have a reoccurring host, Lauren Shepherd.

Here you go, Lauren, take it from there. So like she said, we are in Matthew chapter 26, and the prayers will be through verse 39 and 42. And so as she said, this is Jesus leading up to the cross, a very popular passage of the Garden of Gethsemane.

I would say definitely one of my favorite. I think I might go top. OK, so throughout here, just a little bit of context.

It's right after Passover and right before Jesus is about to be arrested. And so we go to the prayer in verse 39. It says, And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples and findeth them asleep and saith unto Peter, What could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.

He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, that will be done. The scripture kind of like this, like preaches to me in itself. But we see the main thing of prayer in verse 39, and I believe it's 42 as well.

And so we understand that right before this, Jesus is going to the cross. There's a lot of things that jump out to me in it. But the first one is about how he prayed multiple times.

Gethsemane is a big encouragement to the believer, even a staple in our faith as far as the fact that there are some things that we are going to struggle to submit to, but we can find help in prayer. So Jesus prayed multiple times. And then I think what stood out to me also, because this is told in a couple of accounts, I believe in Mark briefly, and then in Luke briefly also.

But it talked about how the disciples were also sorrowful. But I think the difference is where his sorrow led him and where their sorrow led them. So their sorrow led them to sleep, but his led him to prayer.

That was just very interesting because we all have had those moments of where we feel sorrow and we may go to other things. But if we let it drive us to prayer, we'll see the same result that Jesus did and find the strength of will looking at the end. And so ultimately Jesus comes to the point of where he says, not my will, but your will be done.

And I love the like nevertheless part because he was able to say like, God, if you can, can you take this away from me? But ultimately I need your will to be done. And for me, that was another thing that stood out is because we have to believe that the Lord's way is better. And we have to know that the Lord's way is better.

And I love the fact that prayer can help you yield to that, even though you may start out in a place of like, God, this is hurting. This is painful. I don't know what you're doing.

But prayer is like that, that bridge to get us to the other side of, I may start out in fear or in doubt, or I don't know what you're going to do. But if we get to those moments of prayer, then we can find ourselves on the other side of like being able to walk out his will. And we'll see Jesus do that in the end, which is missing in Luke.

And so I think for me at one point in my life, I think I got the Holy Ghost like 14. And I remember coming out to church and my cousin was right there and I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna follow Jesus my whole life. You're good.

This is like smooth sailing. I think I assumed that. And as I walk with God, I've learned that it's definitely not an easy road.

I thought it would be because it's like, okay, I've made up my mind. This is what I want. But I think one thing that we have to understand is that this road, this life, it comes with, you know, pain and sufferings and things that we have to endure.

And so if we understand that, but also understand the fact that we can take these things to God in prayer and find strength to walk through it. That's why I said at the beginning, it's a staple because we will consistently go through things in this life. But if we adopt this mindset of, I may start out in pain, or I may start out in a place of where I don't want to yield to this and take it to prayer.

I think we'll find ourselves consistently victorious and consistently submitting and bowing to God, which is the goal. And we're going to Luke chapter 22, and it starts in verse 39, but it's one specific place that we're going to, that we're going to verse 43. And it says, and this was a difference.

It says, and there was, there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And so in the midst of Jesus consistently going to God, I think it was like three times, somewhere in that, in that prayer, he found strength and it was specifically God giving it to him by the angel. And so I think we have to, to understand and even believe going into prayer that I don't know really what it is, like specifically what happens in heaven or wherever, when we pray, but something shifts like in us and something can shift.

And so when I don't want to bow is understanding that I can find the strength to bow in prayer. And so I keep saying that, but like, that's the point I want to drive home that I can start out in a place unsubmitted, but if I go to prayer, I can find strength to submit. A couple of things that stood out to me was one, he did pray the same prayer three times saying the same words, like you said, for the believers that gives us confidence in praying more than once.

I've repeatedly heard the question, is it wrong to ask God more than once? Or is it demonstrating a lack of faith if I keep praying and asking for the same thing? And my response is always Matthew 26. No, Jesus did it. Like that is okay.

If Jesus had to pray more than once, we're good. But what I really liked was how you pointed out that this Gethsemane experience led one group of people, his disciples to sleep and him to prayer and the difference that makes. The Bible does record in Luke that they were both sorrowful.

It says the disciples slept for sorrow. They were heavy. It's like they were crying themselves to sleep type of thing.

In Matthew 22, 45, they weren't just indifferent. That wasn't why they were asleep. They were asleep because it's too much.

I'm weighted. And I think people can understand that if you've lived any amount of time out there, then you know there's sometimes it's just like, I'm just going to bed. I can't take this.

But instead of that, he chose prayer because he said he was exceedingly sorrowful as well. His answer was that this angel came strengthening him, but he had to keep praying even after that. He got to a place where he was resolved to do what God was saying.

I love how you're driving home about us being able to ask God even for the strength to do what he's saying. When God gives us something to do, he's not just giving us something to do and saying, take this and run. He is there the whole step of the way, equipping us and fashioning us and bringing us to the level we need to be to accomplish what he said as well.

You see that with Jesus, that even though he knew this is why he was always born and this was always what was going to happen, he needed something from God to get from the promise of what would happen to the reality of it. Yeah. Sister Harris said something like that, or something along the lines, maybe two weeks ago or so.

She talked about how God would give, it wasn't necessarily instructions, it was a word and then you try to walk it out yourself. But I think what just came to my mind here is even, it doesn't have to be Saul that leads us to the prayer about submission because we should seek him in everything we do. When she said that, it's like, stop making up your own instructions on what he gave, on the word that he gave.

So also seeking him for the word he gave and then how to get there because we make it up. Well, I make it up. I make it up and you find yourself bad, but it just came to my mind.

It doesn't have to just be sorrow that leads you to this type of prayer. I agree with you. It doesn't have to be sorrow that drives us there, but it does have to be something else that you said that I felt was so clutch and that was, you have to believe his way is better.

When you don't believe his way is better, then you do tend to recant when you're questioning the way and you're not feeling secure in it. But when you get confidence that his will is the way, it does help you bow even in uncomfortable positions and really challenging situations. So how do you arrive at a place where you feel like his way is better? Or how have you walked yourself there in the past? I've found that his way is better is because I've learned and like really begin to believe because I've seen like I found myself in the same places when I tried to do it my own way.

And so that and looking at scripture and allowing scripture to be more than just a story, like this was a moment that was real because scripture testifies. And so when you see in scripture consistently like, oh, he did this and he instructed him to go this way. And you consistently see that he sees further than we do like much further.

So why do I keep trying to figure it out myself when for one, like we talked about, he's the alpha and the omega and he knows where I'm trying to get to where I need to. Just seeing it in my own life in scripture has been like, all right, Lauren. Yeah.

And what you're saying about scripture is key because it doesn't have to just be experience that teaches us. My mom always told us experience is the most permanent teacher, not necessarily the best teacher. And that's very true because when you have to experience something, that result is permanent.

But if you can read and learn or listen and learn, that actually is a better teacher. So if we'll just take the scriptures for what it said and just believe what he said, prayerfully, we won't have to experience our way to get to his way. As we wrap it up today, my prayer is that one, we'll always remember that his way is better and that life won't have to teach us that when the scriptures can.

And two, that we'll know that he will give us what we need to get from what he said to when we see it. And we know that all things work together for our good. And we know that when we follow him, he does all things well.

And we know this because we've come to know him. We've come to know him through his word and through prayer. And we found that prayer reaches every situation.

Join the movement, join the community, like, share, and subscribe to this podcast. Visit us at PressToPray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook. Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and we're wondering how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice.

It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have. You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you. It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith.

Visit PressToPray.com.

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