Blood,,Sweat and Prayer

Jesus was about to step into a perfect storm of pain, suffering and death. He was about to be betrayed, slandered, arrested, tried, beaten, flogged and crucified. And all of that would pale compared to the separation from the Father as a result of the sin and guilt of the world placed upon his shoulders. 

The degree of suffering awaiting him was revealed in the fact that, as he prayed, sweat began to form on his forehead and then fall to the ground like drops of blood: "he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground" (Luke 22:44).

When under extreme pressure, the capillaries in the forehead can actually burst causing blood, mixed with sweat, to pour off one's forehead. Jesus was under that kind of stress and pressure. His path was firmly set and there was no place to go, as Abraham Lincoln once said,  "except to his knees."

But from his knees, a power would be released that would rock the gates of hell and shatter the power of sin and death. From his knees he would release the power to bring Satan to his knees. From his knees he would set in motion the events that would cause "every knee [to] bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth" (Phil 2:10).  

The prayer of Jesus was was not ordinary prayer but it was not prayer limited to the divine. It was prayer that fully focused all Hus energy in one places prayer that was not distracted by other thoughts or secondary concerns. It was prayer that few ever take the time and energy to enter. It is the prayer beginning in the soul of the petitioner and reaching to the Spirit of God. 

You and I can reach this level of prayer but we generally don't. I'm not sure it is something we could or would even want to achieve on a regular basis but it is the kind we should strive for and enter into when the stakes are high. Jus' Thinkn.