Your Cup

In this episode of Your Cup, we dive into Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and what it teaches us about suffering, surrender, and trusting God's will. Sometimes the cup God asks us to carry isn't the one we would choose, but through Jesus' example, we learn that obedience in the midst of pain can lead to purpose. If you're in a season of hardship, this episode is a reminder that God sees your struggle, walks with you through it, and can use your cup for His glory.

Transcript

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My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. He went on a little further and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, My Father, if it is possible that this cup of suffering be taken away from me, yet I want your will to be done, not mine. And this is a prayer that Jesus said three times. So I know I've experienced and I know you've experienced praying to God the same prayer over and over again, asking God to remove, to stop, to block something that's going on in your life. So let's talk about it. My name is Vene Tria, and this is the Endurance Global Podcast. Thank you so much to anyone who is tuning in. I want to say a quick prayer. Heavenly Father, we do thank you on today, tonight, tomorrow, whenever uh the listeners are listening, God, we thank you, Lord. And we just ask that most importantly, whatever needs to be received from this message to whoever is listening, God, let them receive it and understand it, God. And we do ask that you allow your will to be done in our lives just as it is in heaven. Alright, so throughout scripture, we see a cup uh being referenced to your portion. Uh, it can represent a blessing. You know, my cup runs over, and it can also represent judgment or your suffering. So we have Jesus where his cup was a cup of suffering, and he knew what was coming. He knew what he had to bear, he knew he had to deal with betrayal, abandonment, mocking, torture. He knew that he had to become sin. His cup was his assignment. And so we have Jesus, he prayed three times, asking the Lord to take this cup from him. He's telling God to take the cup from him. But at the end of the prayer, he said, Let your will be done, God, not mine. And the very first time when he said the prayer, that burden did not get lighter. He was still very much dealing with extreme stress. He was stressing. And the burden was still there. You know, sometimes we think that if we pray long enough or we pray hard enough, that God will remove our trials. But Jesus actually lets us know that God will answer our prayer by giving us strength instead of escape. So sometimes we're expecting God to deliver us from this particular thing. We're expecting him to immediately move it and we're just praying, we're praying. Sometimes we're even implicating fasting. You know, we're fasting and we're praying. And I don't know if you've ever gotten to that point where it's like it just hasn't worked. God has not pulled you through this situation. And sometimes you have to sit back and, you know, like begin to really talk to God, begin to really listen to God. Because again, He may answer your prayers by giving you strength to go through this, to go through whatever you're going through. Because a lot of times we tend to glorify the breakthrough, but we don't glorify the break. We don't talk about the break. So we have Jesus here. He expressed his concern. He was very much so honest. He said, My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. He felt as though what he was going to deal with, what he was going to have to bear, he felt as though it was too much for him to bear. And he is pleading with God, he is praying to God. He he prayed, he went back to the disciples, he prayed, he went back, he prayed again. And he is saying, God, please take this cup of suffering away from me. But nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine. This is what he is telling God. He did not want that cup, he didn't fake that he wanted the cup. It's not that he like he was excited to go and get on the cross and have to die. An innocent lamb, a per the only person on this earth that was out sin. It's not like he was excited to go and hop on that cross, to be nailed to the cross. No, he did not fake that. But in the Garden of Gethsemane, there was an exchange of wills. He told God, He's like, Not my will, but your will. I'm willing to, even though I feel like this cup of suffering is too much for me. But if this cup of suffering is a part of my story, if this is a part of my assignment, if you have ordained this cup of suffering for me, if you've allowed it, God, if it's a part of your will for me, then I have to drink it. So let your will be done. And sometimes it's almost like the only way that we can get to that point is if we come to the end of ourselves and realizing that we are not in control. Because, see, your cup, it may be grief, illness, rejection, singleness, financial hardship, waiting, loneliness, persecution. Not every cup is the same. So you have to begin to change your perspective, change your mindset. Because what if your greatest suffering is preparing you for your greatest usefulness? Whatever suffering that you're dealing with, what if that's what God is going to use for your future? What if that's the thing that's going to push you into your God-ordained purpose, the whole purpose of God forming you in your mother's womb? What if this is the reason why? Because on the social media, you know, we tend to glorify all these things. We tend to say that God has blessed us with this car, that God has blessed us with this child, that God has blessed us with this husband. But we don't talk about how we were in pain, how we were depressed, how we were sad, we were dealing with loneliness, how we were single, how nothing was going on for nine years before that man came. We don't talk about how the woman struggled with the childbirth. We don't talk about the suffering, the depression, the hardship that she went through, wanting to get pregnant, watching other women around her pregnant, getting pregnant so easily. But here she is suffering, and she feels as though she has given her all and given her everything to God. She has fasted, she has prayed, and nothing has come through for her. The pregnancy test is still negative. We don't talk about that. We don't talk about the suffering. We just talk about the blessing. And so I feel like a lot of young adults come into Christ. They get saved, and they believe that their problems are going to be washed away. They believe that their suffering, the earthly sufferings that they're dealing with now, they believe it's going to be washed away. Things are just going to get better. And they end up leaving God. They end up leaving faster than they came in. Because they don't understand that the Bible tells us throughout scripture that we're going to deal with suffering. Jesus tells us, He says that life is going to happen. The Bible never says if you struggle. The Bible lets us know that we are going to struggle. And we have to understand that suffering, it will deepen your dependence on God, it will produce endurance, it will produce character, and it will prepare you for whatever God is leading you to. See, Jesus' cup, his cup led him to the resurrection. Jesus' cup led to the resurrection. Sometimes resurrection comes after we drink the cup. So we have to stop asking God, why me? But instead, why not you? Because you are not too good to suffer. I used to have this mindset, you know, a few years back that, you know, it can't happen to me. It won't happen to me because it seems as though you hear some of the harshest stories that life happens, but it seems as though God has protected that from coming to your doorstep until it arrives at your doorstep and you begin to say, Why you? But at the end of the day, I know for a fact now because at the end of the day, it was me. So I know I will never in my mind have that mindset of thinking that it can never happen to me. So if you are thinking it and you have that mindset, you might as well let it go, baby. Because you are not too good to suffer, you are not too good to struggle, you are not too good to go through financial hardship, you are not too good to go through loss. We have people that don't have their eyesight, don't have their earring, I mean their hearing, don't have their the activity of their limbs. I I was at church one time, completely upset with God, disappointed because I felt like he should have come through for me. I'm like, God, I've been dealing with delay so long, I've been dealing with setbacks so long, and here I am at the finish line. And you do this to me. You let me see the glory, you let me see the finish line, to not let me cross over. You let me waste years, money, time to not let me cross over. You let me deal with this. This is the cup that you gave me. When I felt like my cup was already filled with too much anguish, I feel like my cup was already deal, was filled with too much despair, I feel like my cup was already dealt with too many mental hardships. I felt like my cup was over the rim of suffering, it was overflowing with suffering. And I'm like, God, why are you letting me deal with this? But I was at church, and and this was a few weeks ago. Because, see, I'm still growing. And this was a but this was a few weeks ago, and uh the pastor pointed out this man who was praising God, and he said that this man basically just got the worst news of his life. The doctors basically told him to prepare. They basically told him to go into hospice because he only had a little time to live. I didn't see that man upset. I seen that man praising God, and I said, here I am with the perfect bill of health. And I'm complaining about the cup that I was dealt with. I have the nerve to not give God thanks, to not praise God, because I felt like he didn't come through while this man is fighting for his life, and this man has been promised no time. The doctors are saying one thing, but he choose to believe that God's gonna bring him out. So it changed my mindset because at the end of the day, it's not why me? Why is this happening to me? But it's more so, why not me? Because I am not too good to suffer. Not only that, it is not about me. So it's like we we want that resurrection, but we don't want the Gethsemane. We want the crown, but we don't want the cross. Before there was victory, there was surrender. Before there was a Sunday, there was a Friday, and before there was a wreck resurrection, there was a cup. So we have to begin to endure. We have to begin to drink the cup that God has given us, and we have to trust in the will of God because as long as you are in this tug of war with God, you will never win. Because, see, what's going on is you want God's will to be done, but you also want your will to be done. God don't do that, God don't work like that. It's his way or the highway. I'm telling you right now, you in this tug of war, but baby, you're not gonna win. You have to understand that God is long-suffering for our sake. So he in this tug of war for our sake, because at the end of the day, he knows he knows what he's doing, he knows he already won this, he knows that he got this, he knows that it is his will. But you still think you're in control, you still think that you shouldn't have to deal with this, you still think that you are too good to struggle, and that is not the case, baby. Because when you really want God to use you, you'll begin to understand that it is not about you, you'll begin to understand that life is not about you. That's why the Bible says we die to ourselves, we pick up our cross because it is not about us. So, I do hope that this message has encouraged whoever is listening to it. And I do hope and pray that God just blesses us and continue to reveal his will in our life. And thank you so much to anyone who is tuning who has tuned into the Endurance Glow. Y'all, please stay blessed.