Create a peaceful space to pause, and allow yourself to feel God’s presence alongside you, as near to you as your own breath. In following the reflection below, as a church we will draw closer to God and to one another as we grow in faith and deepen our sense of belonging to God.
Matthew 26:36-38
Jesus brought them to an olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, ‘Sit here while I go on ahead to pray.’ He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he began to be filled with anguish and deep distress. He told them, ‘My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me.’
The full realisation of what is ahead hits Jesus and in real distress he needs both his Father God and his human friends. In prayer he calls out to his Father for a change of plan. Although the answer is NO, God gives him the strength to cope. But when he turns to his friends for comfort and support, they are asleep.
If Jesus, in his time of greatest trial, needed both God and human companionship, so certainly do we at this present time of trial. Like Jesus, when we turn to God in prayer, we find him waiting for us, to be with us. And human companionship is something we find, even in this time of isolation through friends and family who phone, email, write to us asking how we are and how can they help. We know how much we appreciate it for ourselves. So let us not be like the disciples who slept but be alert to how, even from our homes, we can provide companionship and support to others around us at this time.
Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus we thank you that you showed us how to deal with times of trial. Thank you that you obeyed your Father’s will in dying for us on the cross, so that we might live, and know God as our Father too. In this time of trial, help us to obey your command to love our neighbours and be awake to their needs, especially when they are lonely and need to know that someone is thinking of them. Amen.
Reflection & Prayer © 2020 Gillian Wood.
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