Matthew 26:38
“Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.”
Jesus is coming to the final few hours before He would face the cross. He knew what He was about to face. He completely understood everything from the false accusations, beatings, mocking, to the humiliation and suffering of the cross. The sorrow that gripped his soul was so great that the Scriptures say that He was “exceeding sorrowful.”
Being exceeding sorrowful is more that just having a heart of sorrow, but it is the emotion that you are about ready to die under the load of the sorrow. It is such sorrow that you don’t know if you can make it under the load. Have you ever had that much sorrow? Have you ever had so much sorrow that your heart hurts and you are afraid that sorrow itself is about to take your life? That is the type of sorrow Jesus endured. Yet, when his soul was “exceeding sorrowful” He did not complain or run to His friends, instead He dealt with it in the only way you can deal with sorrow of such degree. Let me show you how Jesus dealt with this degree of sorrow.
First, He prayed. You can see Jesus trying to get away from His disciples as quickly as possible because He needed to go to His Father in prayer. He completely understood that the only comfort He would find with such degree of sorrow was in prayer. When your soul is dealing with an exceeding sorrow, your only hope and comfort will come through prayer. Many people have turned to vices to deal with such sorrow, but the vice will not quench such sorrow. Many have run to friends or authority with such sorrow, but as much as they want to help they cannot for only God can deal with such sorrow. When your soul is under such duress that you are exceeding sorrowful, the only answer for such sorrow is prayer. Prayer is the anesthesia to exceeding sorrow. The next time you experience such sorrow you need to pray.
Second, accept the sorrow. It is interesting that as Jesus prayed you see Him accepting the sorrow as His cup. Prayer is the only thing that will cause you to accept your sorrow. Certainly, we pray to remove the sorrow, but somewhere along the way you are going to have to accept the sorrow. Until you accept the sorrow, you will never find the solution to deal with it.
Third, accept the sorrow as God’s will for your life. Jesus understood that this was the Father’s will. Though it didn’t remove the pain that He would have to endure, it gave Him a peace inside that removed His sorrow of heart. Friend, you must accept your sorrow as God’s will for your life. Stop complaining about it and accept it. When you accept something as God’s will, then that is when it becomes a tool to use to help others.
Fourth, pray to change your will and not God’s will. It is very interesting that Jesus said in verse 39, “…nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” This is what prayer moved Jesus to do. It moved Him to the point where He wanted His will to be transformed into the Father’s will. The greatest desire you should have in prayer is that God changes your will to match His will. God’s will is what you should ultimately desire. When I go through times of exceeding sorrow, I often say to God, “Father, this is what I want, but if it is not what you want, then would you change my wanter to match your will?” When your will is changed into God’s will, then that is when the peace of God will comfort the sorrow you must endure.
What is the sorrow you are facing today? Let me encourage you to let these four steps be the steps that turns your will into God’s will. This is the only successful way you will deal with exceeding sorrow.