Gethsemane

God is our Loving Heavenly Father.  We are His children, and He wants us to succeed in life.  He desires that we communicate with Him through prayer.  In Alma, in the Book of Mormon, a man named Amulek pleads for us to pray to God.
"Ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness...let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you." (Alma 34:26-27)
Our Heavenly Father wants to hear the desires of our hearts.  He wants us to build that communication and relationship with Him.  God is ready for us to come to Him, and that very first step is to exercise faith and pray to know that He is there, and that He is real.

The Lord has given us all that we have, because He loves us.
His greatest gift to us was when He sent His son, Jesus Christ to the earth to suffer the atonement for us.  The atonement includes the suffering in the garden of Gethsemane, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection.  Today, I'm going to be writing about Gethsemane.  This sacrifice was necessary for us to return to God.  It was also the best way the Lord could illustrate His love for us.
In St John 3:16 we read:
"For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have ever lasting life."
God loved us so much and desires us to return to Him.  The only way we could do so, was to have someone suffer for us, as a reconciliation to bring us closer to God. 
He sent His son, Jesus Christ, to this earth, to suffer the sins, pains, temptations and diseases that mankind would have to face. 
Christ was with His apostles, and they traveled to the Garden of Gethsemane.  Christ asked His disciples to watch and pray.  Just like in the book of Alma, Christ asked his apostles to pour out their souls to God.  Then, Christ himself traveled a little further, and began to pray.  He saught the one whom He had always saught; His Father.  "Abba" He cried, "Father".  The pain was great, and the suffering difficult.  The only thing that could help was praying to His Father. 
The Book of Mormon has revealed, "And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can sufer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish...And he shall be caled Jesus Christ, the Son of God."  (Mosiah 3:7)
Jesus Christ suffered every pain we would ever feel.  Everything in life that was unfair, every person that hurt our feelings, every broken bone we've felt, every bruised knee, every tear we've shed-Christ has felt them all.  He suffered for us individually.  His suffering was as real as ours-so real in fact, that He bled out of every pore of His weakened body.  The pain was so traumatic, that any other man would've died.  But not Christ-because he was sent from God for a divine purpose.  That purpose was to save us.  We must actively choose to follow Christ or actively choose to follow sin.  The atonement comes from the phrase "At one" with God.  We can be at one with our Heavenly Father, but only if we take hold of the atonement and live a righteous life.  We must be obedient, we must be kind, charitable, loving, and teachable. 

Pray to the Lord for strength.  When we are in our own personal Gethsemane, pray for comfort, for help.  Christ suffered all so that he might comfort and help us.  I'd like to end today's post with this scripture:
"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy... that he may know how to succor his people according to their infirmities."  Alma 7:11-12
Our Savior, Jesus Christ, knows how difficult life can be.  If all we can do is muster a pray to our Father in Heaven, the sacrifice of the Atonement that Christ made, will come into our lives and lift our burdens.  I know this is true.  I have felt the Lord's hand in my life daily.  I know Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that we can be comforted because of His great love for us.


Additional Scriptures:
Mosiah 3:11-13
1 John 4:7-9
Alma 7:11-12
Alma 34
Matthew 22-25
Mosiah 3:7-9



If any of you have questions, please feel free to ask, and though it may take time to find the most correct answer, I will find one for you and respond accordingly.