Thought of the Day !!

And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

                                                                          Luke 22:39-42 (ESV)

On the night that he was taken into custody, where he would be unjustly accused and beaten and eventually crucified, Jesus prayed for God’s will to be done.  How often does our prayer life lead to things like, Lord please do this or please do that? Please bless this thing that I want to do, or pave the way for me to get the thing I want? 

On the other hand, how often might we truly let go and ask God to have His will be done, even if it’s contrary to our own?

That’s exactly what Jesus did.  We see that he didn’t particularly want to be tortured and die on a cross.  Remember that Jesus is fully human as well as being fully divine.  His humanity would have loved it if the Father would chose another less painful way.  But he lets go of all his desires and tells his Father in Heaven, “Your will, not mine”.  Can we do that when we think we’ve been called to do something we don’t want to do?  Can we do that when we have a great desire for something to happen a certain way?  Can we let go and pray “Your will, not mine”?

In the love of Christ,

greg