21 Days Of Prayer | Day 4 - West Ridge Church

Prayer Guide: Day 4

Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down, and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Luke 22:39-44

In this passage, we see Jesus suffering from a human condition called hematidrosis. According to the National Library of Medicine, hematidrosis is a condition in which capillary blood vessels that feed the sweat glands rupture, causing them to exude blood, occurring under conditions of extreme physical or emotional stress. Hematidrosis is a rare medical condition, and very little is known about it. This confirms two significant things for us. 1-The disciples saw this and probably had never seen anything like it before or ever again. It would be difficult for the disciples to fabricate a detail like this in their account. 2- It shows that Jesus experienced a genuine human level of fear, stress, and anxiety that very few people on Earth have ever known.

1-The disciples saw this and probably had never seen anything like it before or ever again. It would be difficult for the disciples to fabricate a detail like this in their account.

2- It shows that Jesus experienced a human level of fear, stress, and anxiety that very few people on Earth have ever known.

Jesus was born like any other human and grew from childhood to adulthood, just like us. Jesus’s physical body would be weary and tired like ours. His body would need water and food like ours. His body would cease to function like ours resulting in an actual physical death. After the resurrection, he had a physical human body, but it was a perfect body no longer subject to weakness, disease, or death, and He was not some bodiless spirit. After the resurrection, Jesus shows His disciples in Luke 24:39 that He still has a body of flesh and bone, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have”.

Jesus’s same resurrected human body ascended into heaven as He left His disciples. This was to demonstrate the continuity of His physical existence in heaven. This is profoundly important. Jesus will be a human forever. Right now, His flesh and blood body is at the right hand of God the Father. He did not give up His human nature after death and the resurrection. This means we have a mediator for humanity for all eternity, securing our salvation. We do not secure our salvation. Jesus alone does!

Personal Prayer Focus 

 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” In Jesus’s full humanity, He asked God to take away something that seemed too much to handle. Yet in His full humanity, He summited himself to the Father’s will. Jesus models what it looks like to bring our biggest stresses and anxieties before the Father and lay them at His feet. Take comfort today as you pray because we have a GREAT mediator for humanity, and His name is Jesus.

West Ridge Church Prayer Focus 

We are a family made up of many members. All that God has done throughout the years at West Ridge Church would not have been possible without the hard work and prayers of all who have led and served here. Equally, all that we are praying and asking God to do now and in the future will not be possible without the hard work and prayers of “Team West Ridge.” We want to simply thank God for our team members and ask Him to continue blessing and multiplying our efforts in the days ahead.