Then Jesus returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” He said to Peter, “are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Mark 14:32-42).

Jesus must have felt desperately lonely and in need of loyal friends, the night he led his eleven disciples into the Garden of Gethsemane. He separated Peter, James and John apart from the rest, and took them a little deeper into the garden. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” He said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

Then he went a short distance further, fell to the ground, and prayed, “Father take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36).  When He returned to his three trusted disciples He found them asleep. Can you detect the note of disappointment in His voice as He said, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?”

This scene repeated itself three times. In his most desperate hour, Jesus was alone. Even His most devoted disciples and best friends could not share His time of anguish with him.

In our lives, also, there will be times when human friends will disappoint us. If we’ve been looking to them to meet our needs, we’ll be bitterly disappointed. But that is just the point. We are to look to God to meet our needs Who will never fail us. Jesus was not left without comfort. “An angel from heaven appeared to Jesus and strengthened him” (Luke 22:43).

Despite Peter’s failure to support Jesus during His darkest hour, Jesus expressed His love for him. “I know how it is: ‘the spirit is willing, but the body is weak’”, He said to Peter (Mark 14:38).

Jesus loved even the people who disappointed Him. He loves real people, not ideal people. And I’m very glad about this.

Dear God, I want to love as Jesus loves. He loves us with all our imperfections. Help me to love my friends like He does. Amen

Questions: What are some ways we can show people that we love them? How have others demonstrated Christ’s love to you in time of need?

About the Author Helen Grace Lescheid

Join us for our Daily Devotional Chat today in our Women’s Chatroom at 10:30am EDT.

Frustration and even anger can play at the edge of our hearts when it seems that God does not hear us nor rescue us in situations as we think He should.

We begin to pray less.  We find our hearts have quit expecting anything from God. Trust in His goodness can melt away in the heat of our struggle and God’s silence.

Countless Christians have experienced their prayers erode to a trickle of empty words of habit or panic button prayers. Some lose faith when life’s hard circumstances make no sense and God fails to intervene as they think He should. Others simply get too busy to bother. Many experience feeling let down and disappointed by the church or other Christians and paint God with the same brush.

It’s easy to begin depending on our own best thinking when we lose heart in expecting God to answer our prayers. Trusting God, when our path in life grows muddy, is not an easy task. The mud of weariness, busyness and hurt can cause us to trip and even fall. We wonder how we will ever get up again. Faith can feel like a thread that threatens to break.

Trusting God with your life, even when it makes no sense to you, is to choose to grab hold of the pearl of wisdom. As Christian women we know the vital connection prayer is to our God, yet we can let it slip away from fingers muddy from falling. We must be deliberate in choosing to cling to it. There is great wisdom and reward in depending on our God even in the silence.

Maintaining that vital connection to God in prayer is a choice. Step by step, through the fog on our pathway, we can choose to trust that God has our best interest at heart and lean on His strength to get us through our day… or … we choose to shrug Him off with little expectation and lean wearily on our own understanding.

When we live our lives with prayer on the fringe we are really telling God that we don’t trust Him. Often with our lips we declare trust but with our lives we show that we really don’t believe He will see us through. Ask yourself the hard questions…

* Do I really trust God to have my best interest at heart?

* Do I really believe He will strengthen me today to walk where I need to walk…even in the dark and the silence?

Choose to increase your trust in God and to bring prayer into focus from the fringe of your life. These steps will help you firmly grasp that treasured pearl…and you will discover the wisdom of depending on God. Choose to TRUST.

* T – Thanks
Thank God for the things He has done in your past. Go back as far as you need to.

Begin to chart His track record in your life. Ask Him to remind you of times past when He was there for you. Then find something in your life today to be grateful for. Living thankfully is God’s will for your life.

“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”(1 Thessalonians 5:18).

* R – Repent
Say you are sorry to God for intentionally allowing things in your heart and your life that you know would disappoint Him. Having a rebellious heart toward God’s ways in one area of your life can cause your prayers to hit the ceiling in other areas. Take an inward look and ask for God’s help in changing attitudes, thoughts, motives and actions that need a correction.

“If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened: but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer” (Psalm 66:18 & 19).

* U – Unify
Unify broken relationships. Whether you have offended someone or have been offended, God leaves the ball in your park to seek restoration. If restoration isn’t possible give God the broken pieces and ask Him to root resentment out of your heart. Bringing peace to fractured relationships brings blessing.

“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9).

* S – Share
Share the journey. When times are tough and trust wears thin, find a friend to pray with you and for you. Tell someone your struggle and ask her to walk with you awhile on the road of life. Getting help in our weakness leads to healing and to power in praying.

“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

* T – Take time
Take time to spend with God. If your heart is dry set aside some time to listen to praise music and use the words of the songs as prayers from your heart. Till up the ground that has become hard from the worries of life. Learn to spend time in the presence of the Lord and find refreshing beyond what you can imagine.

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust” (Psalm 91:1 & 2).

Depend on God in new ways today. Trust Him… even in the silence and in the dark. The wisdom of depending on God will bring results in your life that will surprise you.

“My God, in whom I trust”… with expectation!

Questions: Do you really trust God to have your best interest at heart? Do you need to give God the broken pieces and ask Him to root resentment out of your heart? What can you do to refresh your soul?

About the Author Gail Rodgers

Daily audio podcast: A second daily devotional, The Grandest Subject, today on the Men’s Devotional Blog

Today the cup sits in her cupboard in her own kitchen. It is still beautifully glazed with her name on it. But the lines on it show where it was carefully glued back together. A clay pot is oh so sturdy yet oh so fragile!!

God calls us clay pots. And true to the name most of us sport cracks, carefully glued back together. We are oh so sturdy, yet oh so fragile. Why would God entrust clay pots with the light of His love? We try to fulfill His purposes but we get cracked and broken.

Yet His strategy is clear… He knows our weaknesses yet He chose clay pots anyway. He tells us why…

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Don’t be ashamed of the cracks in your life… don’t be afraid to show how God has mended you. This is the testimony to the watching world. Our God fixes broken pieces!

If you are broken today because of circumstances in your life, or because of choices you wish you had made differently, don’t stay in pieces on the floor. If you know you have disappointed God in your walk or in your talk tell Him you are sorry.

God will forgive you, pick you up and mend you. Changed lives, lives lived in the power of the Holy Spirit, demonstrate that it is His power at work in us. This is our hope…this is the hope we hold out to a needy world.

Father God, Thank you that You use cracked pots to demonstrate Your love and power. Forgive me today for the guilt trips and the pity parties and help me to tap into the power that changes lives. Thank you that You put Your Spirit in me so that Your amazing power can be visible! Shine through my cracks today, Lord so that others can see who You are. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

Questions: Do you need to change your thinking and accept the cracks in your life as the very places Jesus can shine through?  Invite Him into those places today.

About the Author Gail Rodgers

Daily audio podcast: Hear today’s devotional, Jars of Clay, read aloud today on the Men’s Devotional Blog