Anxiety weighs down the heart,
but a kind word cheers it up.
The righteous choose their friends carefully,
but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
These have been anxious times for all of
us. Pandemic, earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, volcanos and that does not
include the violence to each other by mankind. There are times we cannot help
but be anxious, even when no-one else is anxious about the same thing.
I know when I was coming close to taking
my driving test a few months ago (okay, maybe a bit longer), I swore that if I
failed I would never drive. I was sick for 3 weeks before it, thankfully I
passed. Almost everyone has something to be nervous about at one time or
another. Most of us have been anxious about covid19 and have been following
rules to try to ‘stay safe’. Other people have real worries about other things.
Where is God during these times? Well God
is right here with us, stopping us from sinking deeper into the fear.
God does know how we feel, after all He spent
years as a frail human, with all a man’s thoughts and feelings. When the time
came for Jesus to face what had been planned for Him, of course He was anxious.
He knew what was facing Him and what He would have to suffer. He even asked His
Father to take the cup from Him but qualified that request with His next words
‘Not My will but Yours’.
It wasn’t only the crucifixion, which in
and of itself would have been bad enough but Jesus knew He would be scourged
and abused before it. Remember He was human and would feel all the pain and
shame that went with this but His friends fell asleep, even after Jesus asked them
to keep a watch with Him. They fell asleep!
When Jesus prayed in the Garden of
Gethsemane, knowing the time for his crucifixion was close, his sweat was
like drops of blood.
Luke 22:44 says
And being in anguish, he prayed
more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops
of blood falling to the ground.
Many
believe that was hematohidrosis, a condition
brought on by incredible stress. Given what Jesus knew was coming, as he
willingly became the sacrifice for the sins of the world, I am one of those
people who believes it was that rare condition characterised by the sweating of blood, which is said to
occur when a person is facing death or other highly stressful events. It has
been seen in prisoners before execution and occurred during the London Blitz.
Prayer
Eternal Father we ask that You help us
to ‘stay’ awake for our friends when they are anxious about things in their
lives. We know that there are times in everyone’s life that we need that friend.
Help us to give the support and care that You give to us, freely and without limit.
You know these feelings that are part of being human. Thank You for hearing and
answering our prayer.
Amen.
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