Leaves of Healing from the Garden of Grief,  by Newman Hall, 1891

“He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground, praying: My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from Me. Yet I want Your will, not Mine.” Matthew 26:39

Throughout His life, Jesus was the Man of Sorrows, And many of His disciples go mourning all their days by reason of continued illness, unkindness, loneliness, anxiety, successive sorrows, stripes repeated before the former wounds are healed — one woe treading on the heels of another, as with Job.  Some thorn is always rankling. When one rocky crag has been surmounted, another has to be scaled. When one troublous torrent has been waded, another and yet another roars across our path.

From the Garden of Grief

You may plead that your heavenly Father would relieve the pain, heal the sickness, spare the life, remove the danger, calm the anxiety, restore the love, restrain the sin, abate the anger, disperse the cloud, calm the storm, or send the sunshine.

“My Father, pity your foolish child and bear with me while I confess that this bitter cup depresses my spirit, raises doubts, disturbs my faith, irritates my temper, drives me to frivolity, hinders prayer, and tempts me to seek relief wrongfully.

“I am taught that affliction should make me humble and patient, gentle to others, weaned from the earth, and submissive to You. But this cup seems to produce opposite results. Oh, let this cup pass from me! My soul is bowed down to the dust! My tears have been my food day and night! O my God, my soul is cast down within me; all Your waves and Your billows are gone over me. Abba, Father, let this cup pass from me!

“Behold me, even me, and listen to my complaint. Behold this cup. How bitter it is, how full, how long I have had to drink it! In my ignorance, it seems unsuited to my temperament. How wearied and faint I am! How earnestly I desire to be spared the further drinking of it.

“O, my Father! Witness these tears, hear these cries, consider my soul’s agony! Abba, Father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want Your will, not mine.”