Sept 25, 2010 When It's Hard To Pray Kathleen Maples

We know we need to pray, we know as children of God, in whom His Holy Spirit lives that we
must maintain communication with the Source of our Life. We must know Him as our Father,
who is in Heaven, who is on the throne of all power. We understand that Joh_17:3 tells us that is
eternal life-knowing Him, being and staying connected to Him through His Son, through the
Holy Spirit. Eternal life is having an unbroken connection, a very personal relationship with
our Father, understanding and being aware of Him, in close communication with Him. We
must accept and believe that He loves us, gave His Son to die for us so we could have access to
His Presence. It was HE who reached down with mighty hands and a hurting, longing heart,
and rent the veil in the temple from the top to the bottom in half, opening the way for us to
enter in, through and by the blood of His Son. When you consider that, what does that say
about how badly God wants us to come to Him? Why is this the number one area in our
Christian life in which we encounter the most opposition? It's vital that we understand this.

Peter said we have been given exceeding great and precious promises that by them we may
partake of His Divine Nature by partaking of the Holy Ghost. He didn't say 'great', he said
'exceeding, or very, extremely great' and precious-costly, highly esteemed, very valuable
promises. A promise is the commitment of God that something is available and meant for us,
for our benefit. It's by these precious promises that we will share in His Godlike nature or
disposition, and escape the ruin, the corruption and destruction that is in this world, because
human nature longs for that which is forbidden, or ultimately destructive. What human
nature sees as good and valuable is abomination in the eyes of God and we have to recognize
that. 1

For the Christian who truly loves the Lord, who wants to serve Him, desires Him enough to try
to read His Word, seeks understanding of it, and tries to live a holy life, according to what they
read in His Word, sometimes, prayer can come hard. That human nature at times can cause us
to err, to fail or miss God, even be tempted into doing something we know is wrong. Passions of
the flesh can be provoked, either in anger, or lust, or coveting, for example. We can end up
overspending, or lashing out at someone we love in anger. At times the Christian will come
under demonic attack simply because they are seeking God, and encounter opposition that can
hinder. At other times of communion with the Holy Spirit, when He's showing us our heart,
that we are not as much like God as we thought, we can be grieved, and despair, and struggle
to come to grips with the truth and our failures often cause us to do exactly what Adam did in
the Garden of Eden, avoid or hide from God. It is a hard realization to see that there is nothing
good in us that we can ever bring to God that is good. There is nothing we could ever do for God
in our own strength that could ever be good enough to be acceptable and that is a terrible blow
to human pride.

Eve was deceived into disobeying God, but Adam sinned with knowledge. He chose to join her
in her disobedience, choosing the woman over God. He was faced with a choice here, it was
either her or God, because she had broken the command, she would be separated. It was her or
God. He did not want to give her up, so he joined her. Immediately their eyes were opened and
they became aware of themselves, their condition, that they were naked and upon becoming
self aware, their immediate reaction is shame and fear. I'm naked! I have no covering! I've
disobeyed God and sinned! That knowledge of evil causes fear and shame in them and then
instinct demands self preservation so they hide from God when they hear Him coming. They
know He's good, and now they aren't, so they hide. No wonder God did not want them to eat of
this tree of knowledge of good and evil. He knew the sorrow that would result from such
knowledge. God comes, walking in the garden. Adam, His son, isn't waiting for Him, he's
hiding from Him. He has withdrawn from fellowship with God. The Lord knows this, and He
calls out to Adam. He's crying out for His son, and that cry was one of pain. Have you ever
gone looking for your child, especially when you have found evidence they have done
something wrong, and they hid from you? Doesn't it hurt your heart to think that your own

1 Luk 16:15
child is too afraid to face you? How much worse did God feel? Adam! Where are you? He cries
out. Separation causes pain on both sides. Adam and Eve saw their nakedness and were
afraid. It was the first time they became self-aware and the result was fear, dread, shame and
produced an instinct to hide from God. Self awareness isn't all its cracked up to be, folks. It's
the beginning of sorrow in the human life. Because of their sin, they were cast out of the garden
of Eden, which was symbolic of the presence of God. He didn't stop dealing with them, but they
couldn't come to Him like they did before. There was a separation now. They weren't like Him
anymore. They no longer had His nature, they lost His image or likeness. But praise God, He
already had a plan for man to regain that lost access to Himself. He sent His Son to reveal to us
the Father. He came to destroy the works of the devil and set us free from the dominion of sin
and Satan. He came to pay a heavy price for humanity's sin. He came to open the way back into
the presence of God.

Joh 6:37 All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and he that comes to me I will in no wise cast
out.

Look at the context in which Jesus gives this wondrous revelation. The people had come
searching for him, because He had fed thousands the day before. He fed them spiritual truth
but they weren't seeking Him now because they saw the miracles. They sought Him because He
fed them bread and fish. He had fed them spiritual bread first, then natural bread. He says you
are searching for Me because I filled your belly. Do not put your effort into searching for that
which will perish but for that bread that will endure to everlasting life which I will give. They
still didn't understand. They were seeking for self, they had no other concept or understanding.
He was trying to show them a better way, a better truth.

What can we do to work the works of God? they asked. Believe on Him whom God has sent.
That kind of believing demands action, it demands obedience. The devils believe in Him and
tremble with fear but they are not saved. 2 Still, they looked for a sign, so that they could see
and then believe. Then they quoted Scripture to Him. Their fathers had eaten bread from
heaven. He knew how they placed Moses on a pedestal as giver of the law. He says "Moses
didn't give you that bread, My Father did. Now He gives you the true Bread from Heaven, for I
Am the bread of life. If you come to Me, you won't be hungry or thirsty anymore." Still, they
didn't believe.

He assures them that all those the Father gives Him will come to Him, they will arrive, they
will be present with Him. Those who leave the ground of the natural man, with all its failures,
weaknesses, impotence, and respond to His invitation to come, come to His Presence, come to
His ability, come to His love, and follow where He leads, He will not ever send them away.
Jesus uses the word 'come' and 'cometh' in this verse, but they have two very different
meanings. The first word means to arrive from different places, to be present with, an
expectation of a change, or an event. This is the same word used in Mat_24:14 when Jesus warns
this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and
then shall the end come. The same word is used for the coming of the Lord in Mat_24:50. In
Luk_15:27 it applies to the return of the prodigal son. The prodigal had come home. There shall
come out of Zion a Deliverer (Rom_11:26), He come to do the will of the Father (Heb_10:7) The
same word is also used to refer in 2Pe_3:10 to the arrival of the day of the Lord.

The second word 'cometh' is pregnant with so much meaning. This one who moves from one
place to another, who shows up or makes an appearance before another, to come into being, to
come forth, showing one's self, become known and established. We can come to Him, move
from our weakness to His strength, from our sinful nature to His Divine nature. We can step off
the natural and into the supernatural. Come from sin to holiness. This word is also used to
illustrated how when we hear the Word of God preached and we don't understand or consider
it, then the wicked one comes and takes by force what was sown in the heart-as in the parable
of the sower. 3 This also refers to the return of the Lord. 4

2 James 2:19
3 Mat 13:19
4 Mat 24:44 Rev 1:7
Therefore, be ye also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man cometh.

Only the Holy Spirit can help us be prepared for that hour. When you try to pray, the devil
would have you believe that Jesus would reject you with contempt for your sinful thoughts or
attitudes, with disgust for your failures and weakness. Beloved, we must remember that Jesus
said 'out of the heart the mouth speaks'. 5 The devil is telling on himself when he tries to talk to
you. HE is the one who views you with contempt and disgust. He knows he can never get back
the position he had with God, in heaven. His mind is so bound with chains of darkness he can't
comprehend truth. 6 He wants you to be afraid, to never have any peace or joy in your
salvation. He wants to try to keep a cloud of doubt and fear over you that when the Lord comes
you will miss Him, you won't make it. He will do his best to convince you that you can't make
it. He's such a liar but this is how he works. He knows the Bible says the fearful and
unbelieving will have their place at the head of the line of those going to be cast in the lake of
fire. 7 He is an expert at planting fear and doubt which is why in Eph 6 we are warned to have
on the complete armor of God and always pray.

When you love God but you fail God due to adversity, temptation, and you hide from Him, you
avoid Him and become weighed down with guilt, shame, and pain, and you continue in that
condition, it can lead to a hard coldness that will begin to creep into your own heart. That is
the danger. So, what can you do? The devil wants you to buy the lie that God is mad at you,
finished with you because you sinned against light and grace. He'll thunder at your mind
accusations. All around you people are going to hell but you don't care, you won't even pray
for them like you know you are supposed to. You don't have enough power with God to help
anybody! Oh, how these accusations can hurt because they can carry some truth. But what
does God's Word tell us? He knew the lies we would have to fight. He had truth written and
preserved for centuries for us that we could flee for refuge to His promises as an anchor for
our soul.

Psa 34:17 The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.
Psa 34:18 The LORD is near unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite
spirit. Psa 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

The only righteousness we have is Jesus Christ, the Lord, our Righteousness (1Co_1:30). We will
all have troubles. But when we humble ourselves, acknowledge our sins, and failures, and run
to Him in repentance, He hears, draws near and rescues us. This means those whose heart-
which is the mind, the seat of thought and emotion in a person, has been crushed, crippled,
abused by events, persons, circumstances. He defends and brings salvation and victory to
those who are crushed in spirit. You may have lost your courage, you may feel there is nothing
left, that all hope is lost, it's all been destroyed, crushed to dust. But when you are there, and
you cry to Him, He will draw near to you. I always thought that word 'contrite' meant to be
sorry. But here, in Psa_34:18, it translates from the Hebrew as one who is crushed into the dust,
destroyed, one who is broken or bruised in spirit. A contrite heart is one whose natural pride
and self sufficiency has been destroyed, humbled by the conscious awareness of its guilt, and
disanulled of any notion of its own goodness. Jer_17:9 warns us the human heart is desperately
wicked, deceitful above all things and who can know it? It's polluted, crooked and incurably
sick with sin. No human remedy can cure it.

When you realize this, you must understand it is the mercy of God to show you this truth about
your own heart. When He does, it can cause despair. You might think all hope is lost of being
saved, your enemy is whispering you have tried, and failed, you just can't make it, so quit, you
remember that nothing is too hard for God. When you have no hope, HE is your only Hope.
This is when He can do the most in and through you. It's hard to pray when you come to this
point. What do you say to an almighty, Holy God, when you see your own wickedness? You
wonder how can this be? I've been washed by the blood, I belong to God, I've been taught by
God, I don't just rely on preachers to teach me, I go to the Book myself. I take it to my knees. I
5 Mat 12:34 and Luk 6:45
6 2 Pet 2:4 and Jude 1:6
7 Rev 21:8 and Heb 10:27
meditate on His Word, I pray and ask for understanding. HOW can there still be such
wickedness in my heart after all that? Even though you love Him, you are born again, you love
His Word, you must go through a purification process. It is painful to go through the fire. It's
in the fire that all the impurities are brought to the surface so they can be removed. He must
allow us to be pressed and squeezed so we can see what comes up out of our heart that is unlike
Him and we can repent of that we didn't even know was there so He can cleanse it.

You read in Romans 7, Paul says I know in me, in my flesh-which means my human nature,
there is no good thing. I want to do what is right but don't know how. That which would benefit
me spiritually, that which is righteous and holy, I want to do and be, but I don't. That which is
not is always what I end up doing. It's the sin nature that lives in me. He's discovered that
whenever He would try to do the right thing, there is an ever present evil that will seek to
hinder. It's the depraved, worthless human nature we are born with. Paul says he delights in
the law of God with his spirit, but his body wars against the spiritual truth he's learned, being
a captive of that sinful nature. It's determined to rule.

People are inherently selfish, it's an undeniable truth. Even when we do good things, there is a
selfish motive behind that. We want to look good, be thought of as good, and we don't want to
go to hell. Those are all self serving, self seeking motives. In verse 24, Paul cries out oh,
wretched man that I am. He hates this enduring, miserable trial, the endless warfare between
his human nature, and the divine nature he's partaken of by the new birth. Who shall rescue
me from this body of death? He recognizes, he's come to understand that yielding to the desires
of human nature will lead to corruption and death. He sees the answer, thank God, there is
deliverance and it will be through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Through Him. Through His blood,
through the access to the throne of God granted us because of and through Jesus Christ.
Through eating His Word, and drinking His Holy Spirit-the living waters we thirst for. With
his mind, his understanding, he is bound to serve the Word of God. But his human nature will
always be a servant of sin. This is not, as has been interpreted by some a license to sin. This is a
statement of a warfare between one and the other and only one can win. We cannot serve two
masters. Whichever we feed the most will win, whether we sow to the Spirit or the flesh. Of one
we will gain life, the other we gain death. Each want to go in opposite directions, pursue
opposite agendas. To follow the Spirit is to be on the straight and narrow road that leads to life
but to follow the desires of our own human nature will have us on the wide and broad road that
leads to destruction.

When we struggle with this, and we fail to overcome, it's because we are struggling in our own
strength, which will always fail us. Disappointment, discouragement will keep us from the
throne and the help we so desperately require if we let it. We have a great high Priest who is in
heaven. His name is Jesus Christ. He's the Son of the Most High God, our Heavenly Father.
Jesus Christ walked this earth in human flesh. He faced every temptation, battled every
weakness human nature faces. He was tempted in every way that we will be and are, but He
didn't yield. He didn't sin. He sympathizes with our condition because He's been there. He
knows we are weak, morally frail and feeble both in mind and body. So what does He say?
Come boldly, frankly, openly, honestly, with assurance to His seat of power and authority,
knowing, understanding and believing He's been given all power over all flesh and able to
subdue all things to Himself . 8 Draw near, approach Him, go visit HIM, at His Throne of
grace. He is waiting for you, He longs for you to come. He went to such extremes, paid such a
high price so you could come. He is kind, gracious, understanding, merciful. That word 'grace'
means a place which has joy, pleasure, delight, mercy, good will, loving kindness and favor.
He loves you, He has done everything to provide what you need for eternal life, suffered
greatly to grant you access into this grace by which you can stand.

Col 1:23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of
the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven;
whereof I Paul am made a minister;

8 Php 3:21
Paul said the Holy Spirit showed him wherever he went trouble, adversity, affliction, shackles,
hindrances, persecution-these waited for him. They were going to be part of what he had to
endure as he preached the truth. Still, he said none of these things move me. I don't count my
life dear to myself, because I want to finish the course the Lord laid out for me with joy. 9 You
can never have joy if you consider yourself in any circumstances. Self will always fail you, will
always disappoint you. It will never want to or be able to cooperate with God. We've been
given an expectation of life forever in heaven with the Lord. That is a hope we have of what is
reserved in heaven for us. Paul gave us some good instruction on how we should pray for one
another here in Colossians 1. He prays the believers will be fully aware and understand what
the will of God is, with the wisdom and spiritual understanding only available through the
Holy Spirit as He reveals truth to us. He prayed that in gaining such wisdom and
understanding it would cause the believers to walk worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him, being
fruitful in every good work and always increasing, pressing closer to God to know Him more.
In so doing they would be strengthened with the miraculous power of God, and be able to
endure the trials of this life with patience, and joy. Why? Because He delivered us from the
power of darkness, from the corruption of sin, redeemed us and made us acceptable in His Son.
In His Son, who alone is to have the pre-eminence, is the fullness of God. He made peace
through the blood of the cross, reconciling us back to the Father. We, like Adam and Eve, were
shut out from having any kind of relationship with God. We were estranged from having
intimacy with Him.

Consider one of your most precious loved ones that you were once close to who is dead now.
Think back to the good times you shared, the talks, the laughs, the sharing you had together.
When they died, death separated you from them just as surely as sin separated us from God.

Col 1:21 And you, that were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has
he reconciled

We were ENEMIES, hateful in our minds which, like Satan's were bound in chains of darkness.
We would run from truth, wanted no part of it, and that made us enemies of God, hostile to
truth. Can you wrap your mind around that truth? Before you were born again, you didn't
want to read your Bible or go to church or talk to God. You were too busy living your life the
way you wanted, doing your own thing, being your own god. You indulged in sinful behavior.
But then the Holy Spirit convicted you, He began to shine some light in your darkness. He did a
work in you that produced shame, an awareness of guilt, and sorrow and finally you repented
and He saved you, removing you from darkness into the light and kingdom of Jesus Christ.
You aren't estranged from Him anymore. You aren't separated from Him now. The Door is
Christ and He's saying Come. He died for you, shed His blood for you, paying for your sin, so
you could stand in His righteousness and He could present you to the Father without blame in
His sight IF you remain persuaded, dug in and grounded in the truth of God, refusing to be
moved away from that hope of the gospel you have heard. That is the key to everything. Satan,
your own human nature, the drawing pull of the world around you will all try to move you
away from that unseen hope that will anchor your soul if you refuse to be moved. If, like Paul,
your focus is not on considering yourself, but HIM who has called you instead. Don't let
anything move you away from that hope.

He said in this world you would have tribulation, but in HIM, IN HIM you can have peace. All
humanity has tribulation in this world. It's a fact of life for everybody. But you can have peace
in HIM, in His ability, His power, His faithfulness, His truth, the fact He can't lie, and that He
loves you and promised to never leave you or forsake you. The enemy wants you to grow
weary in your mind, tire of the battle and give up your confidence in Him and walk away in
defeat. He will pressure your mind, fire lie after lie at your mind, all to discourage you and
convince you that you can't make it. He will seek to focus your attention on everything that is
wrong and bad to make you despair and lose hope. But there is grace-divine influence on your
heart which will give you peace and joy and strength to carry on if you refuse to be knocked off
the Rock. Knowledge and faith that you are accepted in HIM, that you have a right to all the
help you need.

9 Acts 20:24
Heb 7:25 Therefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever lives to make intercession for them.

He is able to deliver, to preserve, to protect completely all who come to God by Him because He
is always quick to speak to the Father for us, for our benefit. He already became the sacrifice to
pay for our sins. When we mess up, He's well able to represent us before the Father who also
loves us. They love us. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. They love us. They are available to
help us. The enemy tries to tell us we are poor and helpless, that we are complete failures, that
there is no hope, it will work for others but not us. Oh, but the Word says The Lord will build
up Zion, He will repair, He will restore His church. He will see and hear the prayer of the poor,
those who know they have nothing of their own that can save them. He will not disdain or
scorn their prayer. It's even right there, in Psa_102:17 this is written for the generation to come.
They will need to know this. He looks down from His Sanctuary in Heaven, to see the earth. He
turns His ear toward earth so He can hear the shrieking cry, the groaning and sighing of those
in bondage, eager to open the door of their prisons, those who are bound in darkness, to set
them free.

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father who has sent me draw him: and I will raise him
up at the last day.

Joh 6:44 No one is able to come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me attracts and draws him and
gives him the desire to come to Me, and [then] I will raise him up [from the dead] at the last day.
{AMP}

People are not naturally inclined to want Jesus. Even the desire for Him is God-given. He has
opened up to us such a precious and valuable opportunity. God Himself has ministered to us,
creating within us a desire to come to His Son and be saved else we could not be saved. He
shows us truth and causes us to desire it. He is our ability to live it. We can do nothing without
Him. We can have nothing without Him. Think on that for a minute. He is Almighty God, pure
and holy. He created man but man rebelled and went his own way-away from God. Our Father
went to the extreme to recover the relationship with His creation He wanted. He bridged the
gap we never could have made it across in His Son. We didn't even want to come, He had to
work in us the desire to come. Amazing. I can't fathom that kind of love. It's not found in any
human being on this earth. You read 1 Cor 13, the chapter in the New Testament on love, verses
4-8 and you think, I don't know anyone who loves that way. I can't love that way. I want to but
I can't. No, you can't because that describes GOD'S love. This is how GOD loves. This is the love
of God that the Holy Spirit wants to pour in our heart (Rom_5:5).

Again, context is so important. In Matthew 11, it starts with John the Baptist being in prison,
and he's having second thoughts. He's in a very dark and hard place. He's had visitors, his
disciples have come to Herod's prison to see him. They bring news of all the things Jesus is
teaching and the miracles He is working. John knew that he, his ministry, must decrease so
Jesus could increase. He was the forerunner to Christ. He had been in the wilderness, taught by
the Holy Spirit, a voice for God. Now, he's suffering, in isolation, unable to do anything. He is
in a very unpleasant place, enduring hardship, second guessing himself and what he thought
he knew. He's now, in his suffering, unsure of the Truth he was so sure of before. When they
come to Jesus with John's questions, He understands what John is going through. How well He
knows human nature. He understands the temptation to become angry, resentful under such
hard trials. He understands how human nature will often cause a person in their suffering
adversity and anguish to begin to distrust and desert the One he ought to trust and obey. He
sends John a message, confirming the truth he already knew, with one addition, 'blessed is he
who shall not be offended in Me.' That right there shows Jesus well understood the great
temptation John was battling. He tells us the same thing in our trials. Don't be offended in Me.
Cast not away your confidence. Flee for the refuge of your soul to the promises of God. 10

10 Heb_6:18 Heb_10:23 Heb_10:35

Then, Jesus turns to the multitude and begins to testify of John, what a great prophet, a
messenger sent from God he was. He had come, preparing the way with the message of truth,
but so many had been unable or unwilling to receive it. He rebukes the cities of Israel and
Samaria and Judea where He has ministered such mighty works. They had been privileged
with such spiritual and miraculous presence of the Son of God. Truth had been shown in their
presence but they refused to humble themselves and repent. Those who were wise and
intelligent in earthly wisdom, privileged with wealth and position, and education could not
accept such heavenly truth. He mentions three different cities.

Bethsaida was a city of Galilee, north of Capernaum. It was one of the most visited places of the
Lord. Three of the disciples were born here. He fed thousands here. He opened blinded eyes. He
spent a lot of time in Bethsaida. Capernaum, another city of Galilee was where Jesus made his
home after he was rejected at Nazareth. 11 He healed Peter's mother here, healed a paralyzed
man, what the KJV calls "palsy". He healed the diseased, the possessed and the suffering. He
ministered in their synagogues. He reached out to these people. He truly spent more time in the
region of Galilee than any other place during the 3 1/2 years of His ministry on earth. He
warns of their harsh judgment because had even a fraction of such mighty works, such
spiritual truth been taught in the cities of the Gentiles, they would have repented long ago, in
sackcloth and ashes-a display of grief and humiliation over their sin.

He knows those who were proud, religious, successful, and had their physical needs met by
their wealth and position in life did not recognize a need for Him. But those who were not did.
Those who were poor, afflicted, needy, simple, they understood. Luk_10:21 gives us an insight
here, that Jesus rejoiced in His Spirit here. He had 70 He sent out returning, victorious from
the mission He sent them on. He rejoices that His Father chose those who were humble, poor,
without many options, simple, young, untaught-these God chose to reveal truth to, and enabled
them to understand and receive it. They were dependent as children.

Mat 11:28 Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Mat 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall
find rest unto your souls.
Mat 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

He invites and welcomes us to come close to Him. Follow Him. He asks those who are
exhausted, burdened down with grief, worries, those who carry a heavy load, come. He says if
you're heavy laden, He will give you rest. In the Greek that means those who are weighed
down with trying to carry the load of burdensome religious precepts added to God's Word by
the religious in leadership, He says Come, He will give you rest. He will lift that load off you.
He wants those who are suffering from spiritual anxiety, overburdened with religious
ceremony to come. You've worked hard, you've tried your best to please God and failed
miserably. Men's traditions in religion have been taught as commandments and it's hard,
impossible to live up to. He says come to Him. He acknowledges the fact you've worked hard,
carried a heavy load. He says come, and He will refresh you, come to Him and He will give you
rest. He will cause you to cease from your labor, to be still and know He is God. You have been
weighed down with a load you weren't meant to carry. Pleasing God isn't found in the keeping
of men's religious traditions. It's found in resting in faith in the completed work of His Son.
Abiding in His Son, not being moved away from the hope that is found only in the message His
Son brought, confident in the price His Son paid, the blood for our sins. There's nothing we can
add to that or bring to that but our faith. We must believe it. God says those who come to Him
must believe that He is, and that He's a rewarder of those who seek Him. 12

He says take My yoke upon you. A yoke was something put on the neck of the oxen to bind them
to the ropes that pulled the plow so the field could be prepared for crops to be planted.
Figuratively, it indicates bondage, affliction, or subjection to another's set of rules and laws.

11 Luk_4:29
12 Heb 11:6
Here you have the contrast between the commands of the Pharisees and the commands of
Christ. Jesus said in Mat_23:4 they bind heavy burdens, or religious obligations and service,
which are oppressive to be carried by people in their lives. They speak the Word but will not do
it, still expecting others to do more than God's Law required. I have seen this in action. It kills
people, spiritually. It puts a stumbling block between them and Christ. I've been weighed down
with others' interpretations of the Word of God applied to my life. It will make you miserable
because you can never measure up. You might force yourself to get the externals like men
preach you should but inside you know you're not right because that 'holiness' you appear to
have on the outside can never be produced on the inside by human or religious works. Jesus
says come, feed on Me, rest in what I've done that you could never do for yourself. Take my
yoke upon you, let Me help you understand, let Me teach you some things you don't know. 13
He says I'm not like them. I'm not rigid, stern and harsh. He is calm, not easily provoked,
gentle, free from religious pride which when it's offended produces harshness. He says He's
lowly, He's humble, in spirit. He is not puffed up with a proud, arrogant spirit. He isn't going to
challenge you and try to make you feel humiliated because you can't measure up.

He understands how you feel more than you realize. Paul explains in Php 2. He accepted on
Himself the nature and form of a servant, made in the likeness of men. He humbled Himself and
became obedient even to the death of the cross. He had to deny Himself and go to the cross,
exposing Himself to suffering and torture and death. Even the Holy One, the Son of God, though
without sin, though He worked miracles, by the power of the Holy Spirit of His Father in Him,
could not continue in the flesh. His flesh had to die and that symbolizes our self will. Our self
will has to die. We have to come and let Him show us the futility of leaning on human strength
and understanding. We have to let Him teach us how to depend on HIS strength, His ability,
and seek Him to fill us with His Holy Spirit anew, fill us full. He can have compassion on the
ignorant and wayward, because He knows what it's like to be tempted. 14 In the days of His
flesh, he prayed, He made supplications to God, weeping, with tears, and God heard Him. He
was the Son of God, but He understood and submitted to what He experienced. 15

He's our great High Priest, in Heaven, at the right hand of our Father, there on our behalf. He's
a HIGH Priest. He's exceedingly great, exceedingly mighty, and strong. He has offered the only
sacrifice needed so we could come. He is affected by our condition, He has compassion for us in
our weakness. He says come, freely talk with Me, tell Me everything. Pour out your heart and I
will hear. I will refresh you, give you My strength, and you can be confident, not in your ability
to serve Me, but in My ability to live and overcome in you everything that is against Me. He
came into a dark and desperate world where even His own rejected Him. Everything was
against Him but He overcame. Can He not easily, living in us, overcome what is in us that is
against Him? He already paid the price so you could come and get the help, the mercy, the
grace you need. We can have confidence to come into the holiest, the Holy of Holies, by the
blood of Jesus where God's Presence is, by a new and living way He has renewed and dedicated
for us, through the channel of the veil, the Door, Jesus Christ. It is this same Jesus who bids us
come. Don't stop in the outer court of His Presence where there is much activity and service for
Him. Don't stop in the Holy Place where there is much praise and prayer to Him. Keep going,
keep pressing in until you reach the Holiest place where you can commune WITH Him. This is a
special place, the most special place. In the tabernacle, it was left in total darkness, no one was
permitted to enter but the high priest, once a year on the day of atonement. Nothing was in
there but the ark of the covenant, on which rested the mercy seat. In the Temple of Solomon,
they had added two large cherubim of olive wood, covered with gold, with wings stretching
from wall to wall. It was underneath their wings the ark was placed. 16

In Ezekiel's temple, there was no ark of the covenant. Jewish tradition says there was only an
unhewn stone in its place. This was a place so sacred that the priest could only come once a
year. He must wear a special holy linen coat, linen breeches, linen girdle, and be washed and
cleaned. His priestly garments had to be washed and cleaned. They couldn't wear anything

13 Jer_33:3
14 Heb_5:2
15 Heb_5:7-8
16 1Ki_6:23-28
that would make them sweat. 17 Understand? No human effort, nothing produced by the human
nature we're born with is allowed here. Nothing produced by religious traditions, precepts of
men works here. Human effort always produces sweat. There was a thick veil made of blue,
purple and scarlet linen, embroidered with cherubim. The veil concealed the ark, it separated
mankind from the presence of this Holy God just like the flesh of Christ concealed His Divinity.
The flesh of Christ was torn on the cross, Him, being the Door, and the veil in the temple was
ripped in half from top to bottom by God.

See Him on the cross, hanging between heaven and earth. People around are shouting curses at
Him, mocking Him, reviling Him, taunting Him. They laugh and point their fingers. Some are
gambling for His clothes. Others stand back in self righteous contempt taking pleasure in His
suffering. His mother, and the disciples grieve at His suffering and their perceived loss. A sign
hangs over His Head, the King of the Jews. Two thieves, one hanging on a cross on each side of
Him spews venomous words at Him. He asks His Father to forgive them for they don't know
what they are doing. This pierces the heart of one of the thieves on the cross. This Man is
praying for their forgiveness in His agony and suffering at their hands. The soldiers are
mocking Him, offering Him vinegar to drink, challenging Him if He's really the King, save
Himself. If You're really the Christ, come down from the cross. This enrages one of the thieves
and he cries out if You be Christ, save Yourself and us! In his misery, and suffering, he reviles
the Son of God. But the other had somehow heard in the noise and the mockery of the people
that prayer for forgiveness. Something in his heart broke. With as much breath as he could
muster hanging on that cross beside Jesus he rebuked the other thief. “Have you no fear of God,
seeing you too are on a cross? We deserve to die for what we did, but He has done nothing
wrong, nothing to deserve this.” And then this dying sinner who had no chance to make
amends for his crimes spoke to Jesus, acknowledged Him as Lord and all he asked was that
Jesus remember him when He came into His kingdom. Something had changed in his heart,
faith had crept into his hard heart-a faith which ultimately saved him. In His misery, His
suffering on that cross, in the face of others' accusations and derision, He hears the thief's
request. He knows there's been a change, a humbling of this man's heart and He promises the
man that today he would be with Him in paradise.

Mat 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
Mat 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?
that is to say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Barclay's NT commentary says this of these words:

It is suggested that in that moment the weight of the world's sin fell upon the heart and the being
of Jesus; that that was the moment when he who knew no sin was made sin for us (2Cor 5:21);
and that the penalty which he bore for us was the inevitable separation from God which sin
brings. No man may say that that is not true; but, if it is, it is a mystery which we can only state
and at which we can only wonder. It seems to me that Jesus would not be Jesus unless he had
plumbed the uttermost depths of human experience. In human experience, as life goes on and as
bitter tragedy enters into it, there come times when we feel that God has forgotten us; when we
are immersed in a situation beyond our understanding and feel bereft even of God. It seems to
me that that is what happened to Jesus here. We have seen in the garden that Jesus knew only
that he had to go on, because to go on was God's will, and he must accept what even he could not
fully understand. Here we see Jesus plumbing the uttermost depths of the human situation, so
that there might be no place that we might go where he has not been before.

It would have been a terrible thing if Jesus had died with a cry like that upon his lips--but he did
not. The narrative goes on to tell us that, when he shouted with a great shout, he gave up his
spirit. That great shout left its mark upon men's minds. It is in every one of the gospels (Matt
17 Eze_44:18
27:50; Mk 15:37; Lk 23:46). But there is one gospel which goes further. John tells us that Jesus
died with a shout: "It is finished" (Jn 19:30). It is finished is in English three words; but in Greek
it is one--Tetelestai (<G5055>)--as it would also be in Aramaic. And tetelestai (<G5055>) is the
victor's shout; it is the cry of the man who has completed his task; it is the cry of the man who
has won through the struggle; it is the cry of the man who has come out of the dark into the glory
of the light, and who has grasped the crown. So, then, Jesus died a victor with a shout of triumph
on his lips.

Here is the precious thing. Jesus passed through the uttermost abyss, and then the light broke.
If we too cling to God, even when there seems to be no God, desperately and invincibly clutching
the remnants of our faith, quite certainly the dawn will break and we will win through. The victor
is the man who refuses to believe that God has forgotten him, even when every fiber of his being
feels that he is forsaken. The victor is the man who will never let go his faith, even when he feels
that its last grounds are gone. The victor is the man who has been beaten to the depths and still
holds on to God, for that is what Jesus did.
Jesus, for the first time, felt that feeling of being lost, separated from His Father, because the
sin of the world fell on Him and sin does separate us from God. The pain of that separation
brought a gut wrenching cry to His lips. He lost the awareness of the presence of His Father. He
knew His Father for the first time had to turn His head and look away from Him for He couldn't
look on sin. He felt what it was like to be estranged from His Father as we were in our sins, and
it was a torment to Him. In life we suffer, and there are times during our darkest hours we feel
abandoned by God. We hear the enemy whispering similar accusations to our minds. God's left
you. God's through with you. He isn't going to help you. The devil is a liar. All he can do is lie,
he totally slanders God's character, trying his best to overthrow our faith. When we are in a
storm and nothing makes sense anymore, we feel lost and undone, with no sense of direction,
unable to hear God's voice, unable to feel God's presence, we can't give up our faith in Him.