Session 2

Finding The Way Out

From Overcoming Darkness: Seeing Easter in a New Light

The Big Idea: When things aren't going the way we planned, the best thing we can do is the last thing God told us to do.

Jesus understood His ministry on earth would end with His murder. In numerous accounts of Jesus’ life, He comments on His future death and resurrection. But, as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was “in anguish.”

Jesus prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me.” In the garden, Jesus catches the first glimpse of the worst darkness anyone could experience: separation from God.

When darkness comes, our natural impulse is to try to change our circumstances. We’re quick to search for an easy way out—a way to avoid suffering and pain at all costs.

That is what makes Jesus’ prayer remarkable. In an intense moment of pain, Jesus said, “yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

We want to escape the discomfort and pain brought on by the darkness, but God wants to teach us something through it.

In the midst of our most challenging circumstances, we have a choice. Will we refuse God’s plan when it leads us through darkness? Will we try to run from the calling He’s given us or the people He’s called us to love and serve? Or will we say, even if we’re not confident we can do it, “Not my will, but Yours be done”?

We want to escape the discomfort and pain brought on by the darkness, but God wants to teach us something through it. He walks with us through it and does something better than we can imagine not just in spite of it, but because of it.

Reflect:

• When was the last time you start looking for a way out of an overwhelming circumstance?
• What’s one thing Jesus has taught you, or could be teaching you, through your discomfort or pain?

Above right: an olive tree grove in Jerusalem

Below: the view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives