The Holy Spirit Strengthens Us

This is Day 35 of my 40 day Lenten Blog.

It's Holy Week, the week leading up to Christ's Passion and subsequent Resurrection. I will be writing about each of the Sorrowful Mysteries each day this week. The First Sorrowful Mystery is the Agony in the Garden.

Following the Last Supper, Jesus went into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray as He awaited the mob to come and carry Him away to be crucified. He knew what was coming. He was afraid. He was so afraid that He was sweating drops of blood. He prayed to His Father that, if it be possible, His Father would take the bitter cup of His Passion from Him.

But Christ was faithful and obedient to His Father's will. He realized that it was always best to do the will of the Father as the Father's will is perfect. In His humanity Christ was afraid, but He surrendered His will to His Father. "Not my will, but Your will be done," he prayed.

In response to Christ's faith, His Father sent an angel to strengthen Him. The Father did not take the bitter cup from Christ, but instead bestowed on Him the strength to face it and endure it until Christ gave up His spirit. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the angel comforted Christ and strengthened Him.

All good comes from God. That includes the strength to persevere through life's struggles. Like Christ, we can appeal to God for strength when we are going through difficult times. If we trust in Him and surrender our will to Him, as Christ did, He will happily give us the strength we need.

Christ still suffered and we will suffer, too, though I pray it will not be to the extreme of our Lord. God will not always lift our sufferings from our shoulders, because it is often His will that we suffer. We often will not know the reason. But if we willingly accept His will, God's Holy Spirit will strengthen us to endure to the end. And He will bless us with the hope that one day all suffering will cease. Those who love God will live without suffering forever.

R.C. VanLandingham is the author of the Peter Puckett series, a Christian children's fantasy that explores what it means to know and love Christ through exciting adventures. His books and blog can be found at rcvanlandingham.com.