Lent Guide: In the Shadow of GethsemaneSample

... our own hands

When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.

But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.

-Luke 22:49-51

They ask… should we strike with our swords? Either Jesus didn’t answer, or He said no! But still, one of them pulls his sword and cuts off the servant’s ear. Jesus says: “No more of this!” And then He touched the man’s ear and healed him.

We sometimes ask God what we should do and then still take life and our circumstances into our own hands. We often think we know better for our lives and we take it into our own hands, hoping that everything will work out after all.

In the words of CS Lewis – “Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

We often want to take our lives and decisions into our own hands and just consult God every now and then if we get stuck… the invitation is to put our lives in His hands so that we can discover our lives within His life. Paul says I have laid down my life in order to pick up life with Christ.

Exercise

Ask Him to make you aware of what you take into your own hands and help you to see His will.

What are the dreams and ideals you have for yourself? How does that fit into God’s will?

Prayer: I ask for a deep consciousness of Your love and work in my life.