Luke 22:39 - Do You Have a "Garden?"

Luke 22:39: - “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and His disciples followed Him.”

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed that you just needed to get away and talk to God? Maybe it was late at night when the house was finally quiet, or maybe it was a quiet corner of your yard or a walk through the park. We all need a place like that. For Jesus, that place was the Garden of Gethsemane.

When we read Luke 22:39, we find something striking: “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and His disciples followed Him.” That word “usual” tells us something important—this wasn’t a one-time visit. 

Gethsemane was familiar ground. It was Jesus’ go-to place for prayer, a space where He could talk to His Father without distractions.

Let that sink in. Even Jesus—the Son of God—had a regular prayer life. And He had a regular place to pray. Now, if Jesus needed that kind of connection, how much more do we?

In Gethsemane, Jesus wasn’t praying just because it was His routine. He was in agony. He knew the cross was ahead, and He was overwhelmed with sorrow. Matthew 26:38 records His words: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” And yet, what did He do? – He prayed.

He prayed so intensely that Luke tells us His sweat was like drops of blood. That’s not just prayer—that’s wrestling with God in the rawest, most vulnerable way. And through it, Jesus found strength. He went into that garden weighed down with dread. He came out ready to face the cross, saying, “Rise, let us go!”

There are two key takeaways from Jesus’ time in Gethsemane that can transform how we approach prayer today:

1. Emergency prayers only work if we’ve practiced daily prayer.  Jesus was prepared for His darkest hour because prayer was already part of His life. He didn’t wait until He was desperate to cry out—He had been building that relationship all along. Too often, we only pray when the storm hits, but if we’re not used to hearing God’s voice in the calm, we’ll struggle to hear Him in the chaos.

2. Prayer doesn’t always change the situation, but it changes us.  Jesus still went to the cross. The suffering didn’t go away. But He left the garden with renewed strength and peace. Sometimes God changes our circumstances – but more often – He changes us — giving us the grace, the peace, and the courage to walk through the fire.

So, let me ask you—do you have a place to pray? Do you have a “Gethsemane” where you can be still, be honest, and be strengthened? If not, I would suggest you find one. Maybe it’s your car before work. Maybe it’s a chair in the corner of your room. Make it a place where you and God meet, not just in crisis, but regularly.

These are stressful times. Life is heavy. But Gethsemane reminds us:  strength comes not from avoiding hardship, but from kneeling through it in prayer.

Let’s follow Jesus into the garden—because that’s where peace begins.