LUKE 22:42

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

TO PONDER

I remember when our children were younger, a couple of occasions where they appeared to experience a similar, though undoubtedly less intense, feeling as Jesus as he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane on the night he was betrayed and arrested.

The most vivid memory I have was when Elise and I insisted that a particular Saturday was to be dedicated to tidying up the kids bedrooms and that no other fun weekend things were going to be done until the bedrooms were sufficiently tidy and clean. After a few initial 'niggles' of resistance, and some stern words for both parents, one of our kids, fully devastated at the prospect before them, began crying and having a full meltdown shouting, "I don't want to" at the top of their lungs while at the same time dutifully getting the process of cleaning the room underway. They clearly expressed their desire for another option, but ended up doing their parents will when it was obvious there was no other way.

It made me wonder then, and many time since, how often I act like a child having a tantrum when God asks me to do something I don't want to do or wish could be done another way. I suspect it's more often that I would like to admit. This prayer of Jesus usually puts things into perspective for me. If Jesus can pray this prayer in the face of the pain and suffering of crucifixion, then surely I can pray it and act on it too when I feel God asking me to give the last $20 in my wallet to the person on the street, or when I sense he wants me to serve my neighbours when I know there issues are likely to spill into my life when I do that.

If Jesus can go through what he did to bring about God's will for my sake, then surely a bit of discomfort so that God's will might be done in my or someone else's life is not to hard a thing to accept.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, today I simply pray the words Jesus taught his disciples to pray, "your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". May your will also be done in me. Amen

Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle