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0:00:03 – Jaime Luce

Welcome to the Jamie Luce podcast. I’m your host, Jamie Luce. Thank you for listening today. All of my blogs, social and YouTube links can be found on my website, jamieluce.com. If you enjoy this podcast, you can support it by liking, subscribing, getting notified and sharing this broadcast. Another way you can help is by rating and reviewing on Apple podcast. My hope and goal in every episode is to give you tools found in Scripture, either by teaching, discussions, testimonies or interviews that encourage and equip you as you navigate living a real Christian walk in a difficult world. I would love to hear from you Whether you have a comment, question or prayer request. You can email me at mail at jamieluce.com. If you’re watching on YouTube, drop me a comment. I’d love to partner with you on your journey of faith. If you’re listening today on any podcast platform, take a screenshot and tag me and I’ll post it to my Instagram story. And now join me for today’s episode. Welcome to the Jamie Luce podcast. Thanks for joining me today.

I’ve got a great message for you today and if you this is kind of disclaimer if you have not listened to last week’s episode, you’re going to want to do that, because it really is a. This is kind of like a part one, part two, and it’s a lead into this. I had asked four questions that Scripture asked that will help us to live a very fruitful Christian life. However, that one of those questions really leads into a much larger topic, and so I want to do that today, and we’re going to be looking at the book of Luke, luke, chapter 22. Like I had mentioned in the previous episode that we this is mentioned also in Mark and in Matthew, and I might look at those with you today, but just in case we our main text is in Luke, but there is a I want to be able to answer for us why it is. There’s a couple of things the why’s. You know you always have the, the problems we’re facing, and we always ask the question why, why, why? There’s always the why’s involved in whatever we’re dealing with, and I want to be able to answer why is this problem so hard and why is this temptation so strong? So, whatever you may not feel like you’re being tempted, I’m going to actually show you that you are and why it’s so strong. But also, why is this problem so hard? And these are truly life impactful issues, decisions and problems that many, if not most have a very common denominator and that denominator is crucial to know and understand, because knowing the common denominator that we find in them will answer the question of why is this problem so hard and why is the temptation so strong?

So, because I want you to go into your Bibles to Luke 22. And I want you to get prepared to take some notes, because this I’m going to give you a couple of things that we see for both the life of Jesus and for Peter, and I promise you it will also be the same for your life. So these are, if it, if it mattered to Jesus and it mattered to Peter, well, jesus is the one we’re looking to. Peter’s the example of who we are right. This is a life lesson that we need to learn. So let’s go to Luke 22. And I’m going to start from. Let’s see. I’ll start with verse 39 and we’re going to read through 47.

Okay, and he came out and went and was, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. So, just as a point of reference, they have had the last supper. They have already. Jesus has talked to them about being a servant. He’s explained several things to them in all the different gospels. You can get a better account if you read all the gospels of the same account From John’s perspective. They were taught quite a bit and that and those teachings are about the relationship and oneness that he wants us to have and what Jesus has with the father, how he wants that for us and Jesus. But then you also see the accounts of all the different things that took place, of the institution, of what we now celebrate as communion. At the last supper and the whole setup for the betrayal, judas is at the meal and leaves the meal. So there’s a lot going on and we’re not going to take the time to read all that, but I do want you to read that. You do need to know the context for these scriptures.

But right after they’re finished, they go out to the Mount of Olives. This was his custom, okay, and so it says as he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives and his disciples followed him and when he came to the place he said to them pray that you may not enter into temptation. So Jesus liked to go to this place and pray, and the very first thing he tells them is I want you to pray. We’re here to pray, that’s why we’re here. There’s nothing more frustrating than when you go to a church and they’re saying they’re holding a prayer meeting and when they get there, all they do is talk. They don’t actually pray. Quit talking and pray. Quit setting it up and pray, just pray. Anyway, I’m not saying you can’t tell people what to pray for, but to come into unity, but pray. Spend the time praying, don’t waste the time blabbing on about nothing, just pray.

He tells them pray and he tells them why and for what, that you may not enter into temptation. So right off the bat and I think that he was specifically directing this toward Peter, it would affect all the disciples, but in particular Peter for more than one reason. And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed, saying Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them. Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. While he was still speaking, there came a crowd and the man called Judas one of the 12, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him. I’m going to stop right there. That leads into the betrayal, but this is the it’s safe to at least.

I think it’s safe to say that none of us wants to go through difficult times and problems, but we need to know what to do when they come. Where is our help in them? Why are we tempted to do the wrong thing in them? What is behind all of the confusion and this temptation? Behind us? The temptation, and I’m going to show you this. So I want you to take your notes.

The temptation was not just on Peter and the disciples. Jesus was also tempted. Scripture tells us that he was tempted in all points, as we are as men, in all points. So I want you to see that this is something he faced and how he dealt with it. Okay, the temptation Jesus faced was to not go to the cross, to not go through the pain and agony of sacrifice. This was all not his doing. He was going to pay a price for something we did not. That he did. He was going in to be the sacrificial lamb he was. He was going to a cross I deserved, yet he was choosing not to do what would bring comfort to his own flesh, not to do what would be appealing to him, not to do his own will. His temptation was to not go through with it, but that’s not what Jesus did.

Well, before I get ahead of myself, let’s look at there’s two things that fall in the category of temptation that this falls into. Number one, the temptation is to not fulfill the will of God. If we just draw it down to its lowest common denominator, it is to not fulfill the will of God. What is the opposite of not fulfilling the will of God? What is the temptation in not fulfilling the will of God? It is to fulfill the lust of our own flesh. It is to fulfill our desire, our will, and not the Lord’s. That’s the temptation. Number two. The temptation, then, is to not attain the victory and freedom that is found by going through. Did you hear me? The temptation, though they, though he wanted freedom For us, though he wanted victory over the grave for us, it was only found if he would choose to go through and I know this ruffles a lot of feathers, because we really want to be able to go over, go under, go around. We do. Who wants to go through Right? Who wants to go through it’s.

This is a bad analogy because a woman any woman who has had a baby by cesarean has still gone through labor and had that baby. So please do not, don’t hear what I’m not saying. But it’s like saying can you just open me up and take the baby out and I don’t have to go through labor? Okay, so just know. I know you went through labor. I’m not. In fact, you had to go through a much longer recovery process. Doing it that way, I’m just.

I’m making the analogy of doing one thing without having to do another so that people can get a visual picture. We don’t want to actually go through. We want to win the lottery and not work a job and save, right. I mean, we want to get to the victory, we want to hurry up and run to the end, but we don’t want to go through. We don’t want to go through. That’s the temptation To look for the easy way out, to look for a Different way that God has not ordained in order to reach the goal. These are people who want to climb the ladder of success without putting in the hard work. These are your. These are people, gosh. There’s a lot of examples and I’ll get in trouble if I give those. Okay, so let’s just continue. You know there’s there’s a saying by many ministers that people want the platform you have and you’re anointing without going through the crushing. You don’t get anointing without crushing. It’s not possible. You don’t get the healing olive oil without crushing the olive. You don’t get the wine without crush, crushing the grape, you can’t. You can’t have the anointing without going through.

When King David was Anointed to be king, it as a boy. It did not immediately remove him from going through with King Saul. Until he was made king, there was still a process to go through, and the temptation is to not go through. Okay, those were Jesus’s. Now I want us to look at Peter, Because Peter had his own temptations and I I gave him three. Two of them kind of go together, one and three kind of go together, but I listed them as three separate, just because there’s a slight variation, and I want you to hear that nuance. I want you to get the difference.

Number one the temptation was to sleep, even though his sleep was from sorrow. He had a reason to want to sleep. There was something to really fight against. Okay, even though that was that. That was even though there was a reason. The temptation is to sleep instead of pray. Let me say it another way. It’s to give into the flesh instead of walking according to the spirit. Let me say it another way the temptation is to deny Jesus when the going gets tough, to deny Jesus. There’s a temptation that Peter was facing that the others were not facing. Jesus already told him you’re gonna face this, you’re gonna face this. And Peter and I’m like this is where number three comes in, and I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but there’s a reason why he resisted that, and that was another temptation. Okay, so these are these kind of tie together. I probably should have waited to give you that one, but To sleep from sorrow instead of praying, okay.

The number two temptation was to not fulfill the will of God for his life, the same as Jesus’s. To not fulfill the will of God for his life, because if he were to deny Jesus, then what would happen? He wouldn’t return and strengthen his brothers, he wouldn’t be the rock that Jesus and said he would be, which just proves that if Jesus said it, it’s gonna happen. I Know that. I Know that we have a Free will, but we also have to know if Jesus said something that’s no longer free. If Jesus said it, that is already decided, that’s already done.

Jesus told Peter what was gonna happen, why? Well, before he was he, he was constantly giving Peter these little Little reminders. You know when Peter said when Jesus asked the question, who do men say that I am? Then he turns the question personal who do you say that I am? I Could have actually added that question to last week’s episode. Who do you say that I am? Because that really matters. Who do you say that I am? But Peter’s answer is that you’re the Christ. And Jesus says to him flesh and blood didn’t teach you this, didn’t tell you this, you got this from my father in heaven. And he also tells him that on this rock I’m gonna build my church. And he’s telling Peter Listen, peter, I’m no longer calling you. You know, simon, I’m not calling you. You’re Peter, you’re the rock. You’re gonna be a Leader. You’re a leader among these disciples of mine. You’re going to be a leader of the gospel that goes out about me. You, you are. I’m using you. I have a plan for your life and In that plan for his life, in using him, he’s letting him know I have determined for you. Because you’ve chosen to follow me, I have a plan determined for you.

So, even in Peter’s weakness and temptation which he fell to, that temptation Did not stop the plan of God for his life. I want to encourage you with that because you will think, because you were tempted, the devil will tell you because you were tempted, you blew it. Because you were tempted, you will lose out because you were tempted, that nothing is possible. Now that God’s plans, he’s changed his mind. He doesn’t want to use you anymore. That’s a lie. God has a plan for your life. Do not allow the accuser of the brethren to dictate how you think about God, what you do for God, the position you find yourself in. This is why it ties back to what I spoke about in our last episode. You need to know where are you, what are you doing, what are you looking at. But I’m not going to reteach that, but you need to listen to that. Go back and listen to it. We, it matters, it matters, okay, and so you need to take that encouragement.

But this so, number one the temptation for Peter was to sleep instead of pray. Number two not to fulfill the will of God for his life. Now what? Again as a reminder, what’s the opposite, then? If I’m not fulfilling the will of God, who’s will am I fulfilling? I am fulfilling the lust of my flesh, I’m fulfilling my will. Okay, they are Two ways to see it, but they are the same thing. It’s two sides of the same coin. If I am not fulfilling the will of God, I am fulfilling mine or the enemies. I mean, I’m partnering with somebody. Right, you got to serve somebody, as the old song says. And number three this is tied to number one, but it needs mentioning.

Why would Peter be tempted to deny Jesus? Why is the temptation in denying Jesus? Because Peter didn’t believe he would deny. Why. Why did Peter not believe that he would deny Jesus? Because of pride. Peter’s temptation was to lean on his flesh, on pride, and pride will make you think that you are prepared when you aren’t. That same pride is why I say that he would sleep instead of pray, because if you think that you’re actually going to face temptation, you might pray.

Peter didn’t believe that he’d be tempted to not serve Jesus. He didn’t believe that he’d be tempted to turn his back on Jesus, to deny Jesus. He didn’t believe what Jesus said. And because he didn’t believe that, why didn’t he believe it? Because he was arrogant. He had pride. He thought he was stronger than he was. When you allow pride to come in, then you don’t think you need to pray. You’re prayed up. You got enough prayer. Oh yeah, I got that covered, no problem.

If Jesus had to pray all the way up to the moment that he faced what he faced, surely you and I need to be praying. That’s not a lack of faith. It is not a lack of faith to pray all the way up to the answer. That is not a lack of faith. That’s being smart. That’s staying out of temptation. That’s keeping my mind where my mind needs to be. That’s keeping my spirit in the presence of God, knowing what God has for me, knowing what he has said to me, knowing what I should be thinking and believing. It keeps me from looking for the living among the dead. It keeps me in a right frame of mind, folks. It keeps me knowing what I should know and doing what I should be doing. Pride will stop me from that. Pride will make sure that I think I’m prepared when I’m not.

Without humility, you won’t see your needs properly, you won’t see what you need from God, you won’t see your inadequacy and God’s sufficiency. It takes humility to see that Even Jesus, while in the flesh, needed to pray and get help. So much so. The scripture records we just read it in verse 43. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him. I find this fascinating, because not giving into temptation and praying brought angelic help for an agonizing moment, a terrifying moment, so terrifying that even after the angel strengthened him, it says and be in agony, even having angelic help, it was so strong what he was going through, he was still in agony. He was still in agony even with angelic help.

And I actually think now it’s not recorded. I can’t prove it and I could be wrong, but I don’t think that the angel just came and kind of prayed over Jesus. I think the angel actually said something and I think that, because angels are messengers, they bring a message and their message is what ministers to us. And I think that the angel was reminding Jesus of what he’d accomplished, reminding him of God’s will, because Jesus kept praying, not my will, your will, and I’m sure the Father was saying this is my will. Son, you’re in the right place. You’re doing the right thing. Just stay the course, just finish, just go through. You’ll be with me soon. This will be over before you know it and you will be with me in my presence again. You will sit in your glory again.

I’m sure that I feel like God was faithful to Jesus in that moment by sending a messenger. It didn’t mean that he wasn’t in agony, knowing he was going to suffer. That still was hard and you can have God’s presence with you. Do not believe the lie of the enemy to think that you wouldn’t be in agony if God’s with you. That’s not true. Or that if God was with you that you wouldn’t be feeling any of this. That’s not true. Jesus had angelic help and ministry and he was still in agony.

We can still feel our emotions will be in this flesh until we die. We have feelings and emotions and thoughts that we have to wrestle with and those things will go on in this body as long as we have a body. That’s why you have to stay in his presence. That’s why you must stay in prayer because you have to know how should I think about this? When I have thoughts, I need to know what thoughts counter those thoughts. What are heaven’s thoughts to counter my earthly thoughts? What are heaven’s feelings about this? To counter and bring perspective to my emotions and my feelings? What does heaven say is the value of what I’m doing, so that I understand that the weight of obedience and what it will produce far outweighs the suffering of what I must sacrifice and suffer?

If you’ve ever had to do something that you did not want to do but you knew it was the right thing to do, and you knew that it was what God wanted, it doesn’t make the process easier. It makes it easier in that you know you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing. So you remove the element of the enemy telling you that you’re not doing what’s right and bringing condemnation. You remove that temptation. That’s what the prayer does, but what it doesn’t do is remove how you actually feel going through it.

While Jesus was hanging on the cross, he did both. He acted in heaven’s language and spoke in his own earthly language. In heaven’s language he said forgive them, father. They don’t know what they’re doing. That’s why he was having to pay this price. And yet, at the same time, he says why have you forsaken me? He was feeling both Folks. When we go through hell on earth, you’re going to feel both. Well, you’ll feel both as long as you stay in God’s presence, stay in prayer. Some things are too hard to go through without staying in God’s presence. Some things are real, some fights are. They wrestle with your life, with your hope, with your assurance, and you’ve got to be in God’s presence because that’s where the help comes from, that’s where the ministry of heaven comes from. Don’t allow the enemy to rob you of it. Why? Because you will fall to temptation. That’s what happened to Peter. You will fall to temptation without it, and Peter did. He did fall. The real temptation and heart of the issue for both Jesus and Peter is the same issue that will be for us. What will I choose? Will I choose my will or God’s will?

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His prayer was not my will, but your will. In Jesus’ prayer, he didn’t ask for his own will. Here’s a great lesson. He didn’t say, oh God, please give me what I want. He didn’t ask for his will. This is what he asked for. There’s a slight difference. It’s like when people what’s that scripture? They quote it wrong all the time and it means it’s different. It does mean that, oh, if I can think of it, I’ll give it to you.

But he didn’t ask for his own will. He asked God to change his will. I want you to hear the difference. He didn’t say, oh God, give me what I want, this is what I want. I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want. He didn’t do that. He said, lord, if there’s another way, he was asking God, will you change? In fact, let’s read it, father, if you are willing, okay, he’s addressing God’s will. He is not putting his will into this prayer request. He has already. I’m gonna get ahead of myself. Okay, hold on one sec, cuz you’re gonna get a powerful thing in just a minute. Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. That’s different. Then I had a different cup in mind, lord, and this isn’t the way I want to do it. I want to save everybody from their sin, but I don’t want to do it this way. So how about we do it another way? That’s not what Jesus was doing. He wasn’t imposing his will. He was saying, father, if it’s your will, is there another way? Is there another way in your will? Not me telling you how. I’m asking you, father, is there another way? And he ends it by saying, nevertheless, even in that prayer, to ask you if you have another will, he says, not my will, but yours be done. Jesus had so humbled himself and Holy, had given himself to God’s purpose that he didn’t see himself Apart from God’s will. So the question to God Was will you change your will? Not. Can I have my will?

Do you hear that Jesus had so come in the Fuldest of knowing what he was, what he came to do. I mean, he said it over and over again, you. You can read this all through the Gospels. He says why he came. He has one purpose, one reason. This is why I came into this world. I’m gonna do what I came to do.

He didn’t waste time. He said I’m doing this because this is what my father’s doing. I say this because this is what my father’s saying. He did not see himself as separate from the father. He didn’t see himself separate from the father’s will. He was in total and complete unity. That this is the value of understanding Trinity. There is no Unity. It is one heart, one agenda, one mind, one decision, one will. And Jesus had so humbled himself and so aligned himself with the will of his father, with the job and the purpose of his life, by being born of a virgin to fulfill all the things he said he must fulfill. He came only to do that, only to do that. That’s why he said not my will, but yours be done, sneeze it.

Have you so surrendered to the plan and will of God that you no longer see your life as a separate entity from God and his plan? This is a very important thing to think about. The, the temptation is to Think that, well, I have my life and I’ve accepted Jesus. I believe he’s real and there’s times when I need to ask him for help. There’s times when it gets tough and I ask him for help, but I usually don’t bother him with most stuff I can handle that stuff. I just go and I just handle that stuff. I do that on my own and and I I know that God has a will for me. I just I hope that you know, by the time I’m done with this life and finish this life, I just pray that I’ve I’ve done, you know what I was supposed to do.

Do you hear the lack of Heart in that? Do you hear the lack of unity? Do you hear the lack of God’s will but not my will? Do you hear the the, the missing action to fulfill the will of God in that? Because if I have, if I am still wrestling for my will, then that’s a picture of Jacob before he wrestles with God. Because he wanted his will and he went about it by doing it the wrong way. Talk about climbing a ladder the wrong way. He he tricked and manipulated to get both the blessing and the birthright that that weren’t technically his. And what’s crazy is he didn’t need to do that. He didn’t need to because before he was born it was spoke of who would have what. It was already prophetically spoken who would have what.

But this is we Folks. We get this so screwed up. We just want to have control. So bad that because we want the control and we don’t want to rely on Jesus Christ and have faith in Jesus Christ and his word, that we take the reins. You know it’s. We’re not saying Jesus, take the wheel. We’re saying give me that wheel back and we’re determined to do it because we don’t think it’ll happen if we don’t do it.

Do you realize that is the same pride that was active in Peter. If you think it’s not gonna happen unless you make it happen, then what you’re saying is you’re so full of pride, you’re the one who has what it takes to get this done. You’re the only one. You’re the one who can make sure that everything’s gonna happen the way you’re gonna. Where’s your faith? Your faith is in you. We talked about that in our last episode. Where’s your faith? If your faith is in you, you will live according to your will and your plans. Good luck. I don’t know if you’ll accomplish what God wants you to. We’ve got to do it God’s way.

There has to come, like Peter, a time of repentance, a realization. Jesus came to Peter after this, after the resurrection, and After Peter had denied him three times, and after Peter had sat in that, soaked in that, felt the guilt of that. When he was finally strengthened and returned, or when he finally was repented, he came and returned to his brethren. But Jesus had to ask him three times Peter, do you love me? He had to address what was going on. Now Peter’s dealing with the self-doubt He’d gone through the humility process and the humility process, if you do not take yourself down, becomes a humiliation process. Humility will still be the result, but you’ll be humiliated to get there if you will humble yourself. The scripture says he won’t have to humble us. We don’t have to go through the humiliation, but we may have to. Some of us are really stubborn. We may have to Just know it’s not the way that God wanted it.

He said pray that you not enter into temptation. Enter into temptation, pray, be vigilant, realize you may need something you don’t know you need. You need to be in here, getting in my presence. You need to make sure that you’re being strengthened, administered to, because you’re not going to realize what’s coming and you don’t know what you need and what it’s going to take to battle that thing and to conquer that thing and to get victory over that thing. We need to be in God’s presence. We need to be doing God’s will. We need to remove our will.

Do I see myself apart from God’s will, tapping on it every now and again, butting up close to it, getting shoulder to shoulder every now and again? Or do I see myself synonymous with God’s will? Do I desire what God wants, even if that means sacrifice For Jesus and giving his life and sacrificing? What does that mean? What does that? What is that going to cost you? Are you saying yes to God or are you saying yes to you? It’s an important question. I’m not trying to be hard folks, I’m just. I want to lead you through to victory, because there was victory on the other side of this, all the way around. I mean total victory, total victory, total blessing, beyond their wildest imagination. So much so that Peter Went to a cross, did what Jesus did I mean went to a cross. Now, he wasn’t paying he wasn’t sinless, of course, and he couldn’t pay for the sins of the world, but he went to a cross like Jesus did, and didn’t count himself worthy. He was now so humble that he didn’t count himself worthy and asked them to hang him upside down.

Talk about a change. Talk about going from having your will to being synonymous with God’s will and wanting to Know. I want to accomplish God’s will at all costs, no matter what it costs me. I want to see the purpose of God in my life. I want to see the kingdom of God Established in this earth. I want to see those who are dying and sin to be rescued and pulled to life. That’s, that’s the joy. There was such a change that came for Peter prior to the crucifixion In the garden.

Pride and sorrow were the temptations to remain independent of God’s will and plan. Pride and sorrow are robbers of victory and freedom. They are liars and they masquerade as strength and they keep us from receiving real strength and purpose. Pride and sorrow are you dealing with pride? Are you dealing with sorrow? The path to purpose is paved in surrender. That is completely contrary to the carnal and humanistic way they think that the only way to purpose is a road paved in all their conquests and victories is surrender, folks. It’s surrender to the will of the Father.

This kind of surrender is not to be confused with faithless fear of fighting. I’m not talking about surrender and never fighting. Laying down and dying that’s not what I mean. Peter couldn’t go to a cross later if he was laying down and dying spiritually. That’s completely contrary to what I’m saying.

This surrender that I’m talking about leads to the fight and not away from it. It is the battlefield of the will For me. I have to do that. If you’re not a confrontational person and God calls you to have to confront yourself, he calls you to have to confront evil or wrong. He calls you to deal with and stand for truth, then you’re going to have to do what doesn’t come natural to you. You’re going to have to say God, your will, not mine. I don’t get to have the temptation of leaning into my personality and leaning into my weaknesses and my temptations. I have to choose the will of God, that’s me surrendering myself, my will, to the will of God and to the purpose of God. Do you hear the difference? If you emerge from that fight over surrender of your will with your will still intact, you lost. You didn’t surrender. You lost. If you emerge and still hate your brother and don’t love the person you’re supposed to love, you lost. If you emerge and think it was your strength that brought you through a battle, you lost. If you emerge and you think it was your smarts and wisdoms that saved you, you lost. If you emerge and no one but you benefited, you lost. Do you get it? Do you understand whose will are you fighting for?

Pain is a deceiver. We don’t like pain. We want to make decisions that keep us out of pain, as far away from pain as possible. Pain is a deceiver even than in the natural. If you go to the doctor and you say, doctor, it hurts, right here, I have pain right here, he says, okay, take this pain medicine and make the pain go away. You didn’t actually deal with the problem. That pain is a deceiver. I need to find out why I’m in pain. What if I’m in pain because I tore something or something’s broken? What if I’m experiencing a pain in my heart muscle because I don’t have the proper nutrients in my body and I have done the wrong stuff to it? What if I need to change my behaviors and I need to be eating what’s healthy and exercising and do it? Pain is a deceiver because it will lead you to hurry up and medicate the pain. You just went out of pain, but you’re not actually fixing the problem. You can’t listen to pain. You can’t let pain be the determiner on how you decide and what you decide, because pain is a deceiver.

I want you to look at Psalm 30, verse five, because this verse tells us the truth about pain and sorrow, even if you feel that you, even if you are in Peter’s shoes and you have fallen into temptation, and because you have fallen into that temptation, you think that God is angry with you and now you want to do it right. Okay, child of God, this verse is for you. Psalm 30, verse five. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime. Pain may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. That is our promise. That is who God is. His word is true. His purpose, his will is the best. It is the way. I have to decide if I’m going to choose his will or mine.

Will I choose lack of prayer and preparation for temptation? Do I want to keep this monkey of temptation on my back? Do I constantly want to be tempted to do the wrong thing? Do I constantly want to bear the temptation of failure and not accomplishing the will of God in my life and not fulfilling my purpose? Do I really want? Jesus said the two are connected. If you want to stay out of temptation, you need to pray. You need to pray. It’s that simple. He said it in verse 40, and he said it again in verse 46. He said it twice Prayer is necessary for you to stay out of temptation. Let me read them both to you again. Let’s read it, verse 40,.

And when he came to the place he said to them pray, that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed. So he not only told them folks, he showed them by example. He said if we don’t pray, we fall into temptation. So guess what I’m doing? I’m going to pray, I’m going to go right over here and praying. See, this is hard and prayer can be hard. He was praying and sweating great drops of blood, agonizing in prayer, agonizing in prayer. I saw somebody post I think it was my mother post this past week, but it said basically it said pray, pray anytime, pray all the time. Remember a prayer, shout a prayer, yell a prayer you know, meditate on, pray, just pray, pray. And then let’s jump back down to verse 45.

And when he rose from prayer he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. Pride, sorrow, an independent spirit, self-will, anger, et cetera. Put any label you want in there, any emotion you want in there, any vice you want in there will work to keep you from prayer. Yet Jesus said it was prayer that will keep you from temptation. It is prayer that will defeat each of those things. We have a choice today.

My urgency is to tell you pray, pray today, pray when you turn this off. Pray, pray. Ask him, say Lord, have I been trying to get my will through? Have I been trying to push my own way? Have I been trying to strong arm you to change your will to my will, or have I surrendered my will and said not my will, but your will be done? Have I surrendered my will? Do I see myself synonymous with your will for my life? That’s what I want, no matter what it costs me, no matter how difficult, no matter how hard. That my joy is that I have done what the Father asked me to do? Is that the cry of your heart today? If you will, if you’ll call on him, he will answer. If you need help, help is in the prayer. Angelic help is available for you. Remind yourself what the word says. Remind yourself what God has promised you. Remind yourself of the hope he has given your life. Remind yourself of the pit he has dug you from. Remind yourself of the glory that will one day be when we see Jesus face to face. It will be worth it all, as the old song says.

I pray you take this message to heart. I know it was a serious, heavy message, but it’s one that brings life. We all deal with trouble, we all deal with temptation, but there is an antidote, there is an answer, and it’s found in prayer. Let me pray for you today. Heavenly Father, we’re so grateful for your word. We’re so grateful for your example of your son. Thank you, father, that you have shown us the way. You’ve shown us the way to victory. You’ve shown us how. You’ve told us what we need to do. You are our answer and we come into fellowship with you and receive from your heart through prayer, through communing with you, by staying in your presence. Father, I pray today that your people, everybody under the sound of my voice, will feel the very special, manifest presence of God today, that they feel your presence, that they not only hear your voice, that they not only are reminded of your goodness and your purpose, that you will do what you’ve promised, but that they feel your presence today. Father, if angelic help is necessary, I pray you send it today. Father, let your encouragement come to your children today. May answers come forth today, may deliverances come forth today and may hope be restored in the hearts of your people today. In Jesus’ name, we pray Amen.

Thank you for joining me again today. Folks, I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me by contacting me at my website, jamieloosecom. You can send me an email there, at mail at jamieluce.com. You can leave me a comment. You can give it on YouTube. You can give us a rating on our podcast. I’d love to hear from you and know how these messages are impacting you. I’m so grateful to so many of you. You have been such a blessing to me in your comments on YouTube. I just rejoice with you when God brings the answer and shows you the direction that you need to take. That just blesses my heart. He is faithful and you will be faithful for whatever you’re facing today. So thank you again for joining me today. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.

0:52:40 – Jaime Luce

Thank you for listening to the Jamie Loose Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please rate and review the show on Apple or Spotify and subscribe wherever you listen. For more, visit jamieloosecom that’s J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-Ecom. You’ll find a free chapter of her new book. You Don’t Need Money, you Just Need God and a fresh word from Jamie on the blog, youtube. See you next week.