I was right!

I don't get to say this very often, but today I get to.....I was right!  A couple of posts ago I was talking about Mark Driscoll's sermon series Pray Like Jesus and made the comment that I expected the rest of the sermons to be as great as the 2 I had listened to.  This afternoon I listened to the next sermon The Gethsemane Prayer and it was awesome!  He says at the beginning that it's not easy to hear, and he's correct, but it gives one much to meditate on!  I strongly encourage anyone and everyone to listen to what he has to say.  Click here to listen, download, or read the transcript of the sermon.

So many people in America today have the idea that once they are a Christian that God will heal them and abundantly bless them with material blessings.  Some believe that when they pray, and if they believe hard enough, that God will give them what they are asking for.  When I sit down and study the word of God I do not find that theology to match the Scriptures.  I believe that God answers everyone of my prayers; with a yes, a no, or a later, just like Pastor Mark preaches.  I wrote down several things Pastor Mark said today concerning this in my journal and wanted to share them.     

Life with Jesus is not better.  It's just not lonely.

Here's God.  Betrayed, by Judas, his friend.  Abandoned by Peter, James and John his senior leaders.  Praying three times for more than an hour in such sorrow and distress that he is sweating blood.  That's the Christian life.

Give your life to Jesus, it'll hurt like hell and you'll be with him and you'll be like him, and you'll have joy.  That's the truth.



I've heard it preached that Jesus suffered and died on the cross so that I wouldn't have to suffer, however the Bible states differently in Hebrews 5:7 and 8

In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.  Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.



According to John MacArthur, Jesus humbled himself to "learn obedience for the same reason he bore temptation; to confirm His humanity and experience its sufferings to the fullest."  When we are tempted we can look to Jesus for comfort and direction because He experienced it, so to the same must be true for suffering. 

I have also heard that we will be healed because the Bible says in I Peter 2:24

 ...for by His wounds you were healed.



If this is carried out I'm left wondering why God isn't answering my prayer when I pray for someone to be healed.  Have I done something wrong, do I not have enough faith, is the person living in sin?  After some searching in my Strong's concordance and a couple of commentaries I found that the word healed used in this verse is not referring to physical healing.  Instead it's figuratively used of spiritual "healing".  When you read the whole verse this makes perfect sense because earlier on Peter is speaking of sin.  He bore our sin....so that we might die to sin...for by His wounds you were healed. 

In this life I am going to suffer, Jesus did, and He is much greater than I.  Once again, I've got a choice to make.  What am I going to do when the suffering comes?  Will I try to escape, get mad, or endure and pray for wisdom, to learn the lesson hidden within, and do my best to glorify God in everything?  Thy will be done.