I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 14-16

I am sure I have written this in the past.  When I was younger, Jesus’ instructions to the two disciples He sent ahead to prepare for the Passover meal were related to me as an example of Jesus’ ability to see the future.  It was suggested that He prophetically knew the man would be where he would be and would be willing to allow them to use his room for their Passover meal.  However, as I read it now it seems clear to me that Jesus had made previous arrangements to eat the Passover meal in this man’s room with His disciples.  On the other hand, Jesus’ prediction that one of the Twelve would betray Him is indeed a prophetic pronouncement.  Every time I read that I wonder what went through Judas’ mind at that moment.  

When I read the various accounts of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane I have two separate reactions.  First is the desire and wish to pray as Jesus did when difficulty and struggling confront me: “Please take this suffering from me, but Your will be done, not mine.”  I want to ask God to take the suffering away from me, but I want to submit to that suffering if it is necessary to accomplish His will.  Second is an empathy with the disciples inability to stay awake.  All too often when I attempt to pray in the ways I think that I should I find myself falling asleep.  As with so many other passages on prayer, this passage reminds me that my prayer life comes nowhere close to where it should.