Yet not as I Will, but as You Will
Jesus is our Lord and Savior. He is perfect man and perfect God. Therefore, He is also our example of how to live in right relationship with the Father. Jesus showed us how to pray when He prayed. I think we all know the "Lord's Prayer" or the Model Prayer as some people refer to it. In the garden Jesus prayed another prayer that shows us how to pray about difficult things in our lives. (Matthew 26:39) His humanity was struggling with what His deity knew was going to happen on the cross. We all need to see what He did and hear what He said.
Jesus asked His inner circle of disciples to watch and pray with Him, because He was in agony. He went a little beyond where they were supposed to pray, and He fell on the ground before His Father. He earnestly prayed, "If it is possible, let this cup (the suffering of the cross) pass from Me." He was sincerely asking God to change His circumstances to escape from the suffering, if it was possible. Something we all pray in various ways all the time. However, Jesus added, "Yet not as I will, but as You will." Jesus did not want anything that was not the will of the Father. He did not want His own way. He was simply appealing to the Father because of the burden of His human nature, but even His human nature knew that He should not be selfish in His request. He should be willing to submit to God's will, which is what He did, and He did it fully. We need to pray like that any time we have a serious situation that frightens us in any way, knowing that God will not put us through more than we can bear, and He won't send us anything that is not necessary. Therefore, let's always say, "Not as I will, but as You will."
Tomorrow, I intend to read Matthew 27-28 and Mark 1.
Jesus asked His inner circle of disciples to watch and pray with Him, because He was in agony. He went a little beyond where they were supposed to pray, and He fell on the ground before His Father. He earnestly prayed, "If it is possible, let this cup (the suffering of the cross) pass from Me." He was sincerely asking God to change His circumstances to escape from the suffering, if it was possible. Something we all pray in various ways all the time. However, Jesus added, "Yet not as I will, but as You will." Jesus did not want anything that was not the will of the Father. He did not want His own way. He was simply appealing to the Father because of the burden of His human nature, but even His human nature knew that He should not be selfish in His request. He should be willing to submit to God's will, which is what He did, and He did it fully. We need to pray like that any time we have a serious situation that frightens us in any way, knowing that God will not put us through more than we can bear, and He won't send us anything that is not necessary. Therefore, let's always say, "Not as I will, but as You will."
Tomorrow, I intend to read Matthew 27-28 and Mark 1.