Melanie

“Pastor Jon was silent for a couple of minutes. Then he stood and walked closer to The Last Supper. He pointed to Jesus. " Think about what happened after this moment. "
What do you mean?
Well, Jesus is God, right? He knew before he ever created the earth that the plan would be for him to go to the cross not long after this scene, the Last Supper in the upper room, right?
I nodded. Yes, but I still---
Okay he knew what the plan was, what God's decision was, but did he go straight from the supper to the cross?
I thought through the story, No, he went to the garden to pray.
And what did he pray?
That's when he said, Let this cup pass from me and Thy will be done.
Exactly, Jesus who is God and who already knew the plan, still prayed that it could be different. He still asked God to change it, to spare him, even though he knew the answer before he said the prayer.
The reason Jesus stopped in the garden to pray, to ask for a different outcome, even though he knew the answer already, was because the purpose of prayer isn't to bend God's will to ours. The purpose of prayer is to bend us to God's will.”
― W. Lee Warren, Called Out: A Brain Surgeon Goes to War

“You don’t need to unburden or collect yourself and then come to Jesus. Your very burden is what qualifies you to come. No payment is required; he says, “I will give you rest.” His rest is gift, not transaction. Whether you are actively working hard to crowbar your life into smoothness (“labor”) or passively finding yourself weighed down by something outside your control (“heavy laden”), Jesus Christ’s desire that you find rest, that you come in out of the storm, outstrips even your own.”
― Dane C. Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers

“While I was wallowing in self-pity, focused on myself, there was a whole world with literally billions of people who had no idea who God is, how amazing He is, and the wonders He has done for us. They are the ones who are really suffering. They don’t know His hope, His peace, and His love that transcends all understanding. They don’t know the message of the gospel. After loving us with the most humble life and the most horrific death, Jesus told us, “As I have loved you, go and love one another.” How could I consider myself a follower of Jesus if I was not willing to live as He lived? To die as He died? To love the unloved and give hope to the hopeless?”
― Nabeel Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

“It is the most counterintuitive aspect of Christianity, that we are declared right with God not once we begin to get our act together but once we collapse into honest acknowledgment that we never will.”
― Dane C. Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers