PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Mark 14:32-36
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)
Jesus is overwhelmed by deep sorrow, deeply troubled and distressed.
I’ve not experienced this to the same extent myself.
But I can relate to my own times of sorrow and distress.
And in those times I am not so quick to surrender myself to God’s will.
The thing is, would I really want to be outside of God’s will?
If God works through everything for good, would I want less than that?
How can difficulty, death, injustice, cruelty, abuse, etc. ever be for the good?
And yet in this story Jesus’s cruel death was for the good, for the best!
If anything is possible for God, and God is my Father, can I trust his choices?
If this painful path is for the best, imagine where the other paths would lead.
Either God does not have control, or God does not care, or God has a purpose.
I choose this last one, and I will try to daily surrender to God’s purpose.
I sense Jesus encouraging me to surrender my life to God’s will too.
He is reminding me that God’s path is the best in the end!
PRAYER
Lord, this path is the path I am on. I cannot change it, though I wish I could. But I can surrender it, and follow it with you, knowing that you walked it too and came out on the other side!
Lord I barely have the courage to face uncertainty, how can we ever understand the turmoil in Jesus’ heart as he saw his death on the cross approaching with certainty? And yet he put your will first. Lord help me to remember my “but if nots” and put what you will before all plans and ambitions in my life.
Jesus knew what was coming – he must have seen Golgatha before as the Romans crucified criminals. Jesus had to ‘want’ to do this for the Father. He had to do it of his free will. The fact that he prayed this prayer and asked to be excused and then to have to willingly follow through – Jesus desire was to rescue us – to redeem us. It took his will to overcome the disobedience of mankind when we willfully go against God’s will. “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Making me more willing and able to do your will O God – every day!
His will be done.
Today God is First. And as such I need to be in tune with His will for me today. I am here to serve and so I go and do in His power. I am not my own but belong to Him. He enables. He empowers. He upholds. This is the Lord’s day.
1. Not what my hands have done
Can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne
Can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do
Can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers,
And sighs and tears
Can bear my awful load.
2. Thy work alone, O Christ,
Can ease this weight of sin
Thy blood alone O Lamb of God,
Can give me peace within.
Thy love to me O God,
Not mine, O Lord, to Thee
Can rid me of
This dark unrest,
And set my spirit free!
3. Thy grace alone, O God,
To me can pardon speak;
Thy power alone O Son of God,
Can this sore bondage break.
No other work, save Thine,
No other blood will do,
No strength save that,
Which is divine,
Can bear me safely through.
4. I bless the Christ of God;
I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart,
I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt,
I bury in His tomb
My unbelief,
And all my fear,
Each lingering shade of gloom.
5. I praise the God of grace,
I trust His truth and might
He calls me His, I call Him mine,
My God, my joy, my light
?Tis He Who saveth me,
And freely pardon gives
I love because
He loveth me,
I live because He lives!