21 Day Fast // Day 19: Pray to the End

DAY 19 // JOHN 19: // "PRAY TO THE END" // ALBERTO GUERRERO

John 19:28-30
“Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

Without a doubt, this chapter in the Gospel of John is the hardest chapter for me to read in this book. I’m sure we could all agree. Jesus was at the final point of his life on earth and he had reached the place where he would give up His life, through pain and suffering, to glorify God the Father. After reading this passage over, I couldn’t help but feel struck especially by the verses 28-30. When Jesus cries out, “It is Finished”, to God the Father and for those around him to hear, he was in a moment of prayer. How? Let’s think about that for a moment: how could Jesus, through the pain and anguish he felt, possibly think to pray and please God with his very last words and actions? Today, I want us to reflect deeply together so that we might learn more of what it means to truly live a life of prayer.

Jesus is crying out to the Father broken and in pain; but, He still chose to glorify God with his very last breath. This brought me to ask myself: What do I do in my greatest moments of pain? Are those moments visibly covered in prayer as much as they're covered in pain? Lots of us could honestly say that this year has brought us our greatest moments of pain. These were times when we felt immense persecution, fear of the future, and loneliness. In those times, is our greatest desire to continue on to glorify God with all we have? Or do we allow the pain and the circumstances we’re in to take our focus of God’s perfect plan? Though, it may seem much less than perfect.

Church, our pain is real. My pain and your pain is real. The trauma--and I don’t use the word lightly--that we’ve all been collectively experiencing in 2020 and 2021 could maybe never be fully expressed. And yet, this passage today in John 19 reminds of arguably the hardest truth about the Christian life: “...In this world, you will have trouble” (John 16:33). Jesus knew this well and experienced it firsthand. His life was destined for pain. His mission was to die in our place for the death we deserved. He was to become the atoning sacrifice for all of us, and to achieve this victory over sin and death, He had to suffer. He obeyed the Father to the very end. With his last breath he chose to pray--to cry out to God--that he might have His will be done.

Church, sometimes the places God has called us to be will be the most painful places we can find ourselves in. Sometimes we’re exactly where God wants us to be and we will still suffer.
Just because we’re in pain doesn’t necessarily mean we’re in the wrong place. Troubles, in whatever ways we may experience them, can sometimes trigger in us the most basic human response that we all have in common, which is to run. While Jesus was there on the cross, he was experiencing the greatest pain he had ever experienced. His call, however, wasn’t to run, to escape, or to change his circumstances, even when those close to him pressured him to do so. Through a lifetime of prayer and meditation on God, His Word, and the mission He knew was meant for him, Jesus knew he was exactly where he needed to be. This may not be what we may want to hear (a lot of the time it’s definitely not what I want to hear), but Christ showed us that when we know God has called us or is allowing us to be somewhere painful, we sometimes need to endure in Him through the pain while we look forward to the triumph. Church, let’s look to the cross as the ultimate example of God’s faithfulness this season. Would we see that even though we may be feeling like we’re at the very end, God can and will do the impossible in our lives. Whatever your burden is, personally or within your family or friend groups, let us not lose the prayerful posture that God created us to live in. I pray for us to have a devotion to prayer and intimacy with the Father just like Jesus did on earth.
God bless you, Church.
Prayer Focus: Pray for our SEND ministries that people would live on mission and we’d plant churches