Gethsemane's Invitation Of Purpose

My purpose has little to do with my outward actions. They only follow what I've purposed in my heart.

This weekend a visual image came to mind from the Garden of Gethsemane.

It'd been a long day and the Disciples were tired. Too weary to keep any watchful eyes open, they succumbed to weary bodies and slept. Little did they know the hour was soon to come or surely they wouldn't have been able to sleep. Separation from their beloved Christ was near!

In writing this post, I was reminded of the first garden of separation started on a tree by a relationship broken by sin. And now in Gethsemane, the fruit of Promise was soon to hang from a tree. Two gardens connected by sin, one entered death by the first Adam, the other resurrects Life from death. 

God in the flesh poured sorrowful tears in a darkened eden of Gethsemane. Were those first garden fruits also watered with tears?

So it was this weekend in prayer, I pictured Gethsemane's invitation. The visual, I won't describe in detail, but went something like this:  I was standing there with the others as Jesus, with outstretched arm, stood looking at us, me, with an unspoken: watch and pray. I sensed it wasn't as much about His need for my prayers as much as it was about my need to enter it. The need to look suffering in the eye and share in it. It was more for my good than it was for His own good.

Caring for, supplying, and tending to someone's need and distress isn't just about how to give but also how there is a gift in sharing the burden of it. There's opportunity when I'm watchfully awake to see it.

Like Elisha and the widow's jar of oil, miraculous provision set her free. When I pour at His prompting, His provision blesses my emptied jars. All I need for living is in supply. It's what truly sets me free and makes me full.

It's in the gathering, the working by His word and the pouring out of trusting His word, does increase have opportunity to fill.  I don't want to slumber and miss sharing with Christ the blessing of being Hands, Feet, Heart to those around me. Too much stuff gets in way of heart.

My purpose is to be the emptied vessel with room for Supply's increase.



Elisha said: “'Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. 4 And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.' So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, 'Bring me another vessel.' And he said to her, 'There is not another vessel.' So the oil ceased. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, 'Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.'” 2 Kings 4:3-7



Join me and others tomorrow in "God's Purpose for me" in "Jam With Me Thursdays" at Faith Barista.