Read Matthew 6:9-13 and Mark 14:32-36
What surprises you about Jesus’ prayer? Great faith means Great surrender.
What area of your life are you unwilling to surrender to God? Start praying “Let your will be done in my life”.
In Mark, I love how real Jesus is. He knows what is about to happen, and becomes greatly troubled and cries out to His Father and basically says, "God, if there's another way, please, take this fate away from me." But more importantly, he also adds, if it is Your will. How many times have you prayed for God to change a circumstance in your life? And let's be honest, have you ever begrudgingly added at the end of your prayer, "if it's Your will." I'll be the first to admit that I've done this.
Like I said yesterday, too many times I think I know what's best for myself. But sometimes that doesn't line up with God's plan. Rather than begrudgingly saying, "if it's Your will," I should realize that God does have my best interest in mind; He has a plan for me...and in order for me to follow His path, I have to willingly say, "Your will be done." "You know best, Lord. Do what is best for me."
I love your comments about thinking we know what is best. It is clear from both of these prayers where Jesus comes down on this. In the model Jesus lays out we are to say "...kingdom come, YOUR WILL BE DONE.." then Jesus shows us that he follows the model. I agree there are times I have added those words to a prayer disingenuously. It makes me think of the times I have added this to prayer. "God if it is your will for me to stand in this line... God if it is your will for me to not get this job..." Jesus was going to die and he meant it when he said YOUR will be done. It changes my perspective a bit.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing to add, the authenticity of this moment serves to bolster the legitimacy of the Bible for me. This didn't have to be included if someone was making this story up. I had to throw in some learning from my Brookside Institute class there. :-)