Lent 2024

Daily Devotion

for 40 Days

Cross Keys United Methodist Church

www.crosskeyschurch.org

Scripture:

Matthew 26:36

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”

Reflection:

The Book of Matthew tells us that after the Last Supper Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. He went heavy-hearted. He went burdened. He went honest, and open, and “sorrowful and troubled”. He did not go alone to the garden. Of his twelve disciples he chose Peter, James, and John to accompany him in his sorrow and trouble.

But even they were left outside of the garden when Jesus entered alone three times to fall on his face and pray. Alone with his father.

In our faith community, and hopefully within our families, we find people willing to walk with us in good times and in bad. We choose from those closest to us who shall be our “three”. They are the faith companions we choose to ask to “sit here, while I go over there and pray.”

There will be times in our life when we must enter the garden alone, as Jesus did. Our hearts are too heavy, and if we are honest, the burden is too much for us to fully share with anyone but our Heavenly Father. Jesus teaches we can be honest in our grief, our pain, our questions, and God will always meet us there. I know I need my faith companions. Even more, I need alone time with my Father to be able to submit to his will for my life.

Then I can put my burdens into his loving hands and ask my faith companions to get up and walk with me the path that God has prepared.

Reflection Written by Darlene Schoenewald

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, Maker and Creator of all things, thank you for loving us so much that you created a place in our relationship where we can come together alone and I can hear your voice and know you better. Thank you for those people you have brought into my life who are willing to sit and wait for me, without judgment and impatience, while I seek you and your will for my life. Bless them, Lord. And most important, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who went into the garden alone and troubled, accepted your will, and walked the path to the cross that led to our salvation.

In Jesus's name, we pray, Amen.