Father, If Thou Be Willing

“And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”

Luke 22:41-42

Jesus is getting ready to go to the Cross. The disciples have followed Him to the Mount of Olives. Jesus separates Himself from the group of disciples to pray, then He prays a prayer that might be surprising to some. He knows He is going to the Cross and He asks God that if it be in His will that He would take that from Him. Two things stand out about this account. The first is that Jesus understood the severity of the cross and how grueling it would be. Secondly, He knew that He, above all things, was to trust God’s will.

The same goes for us. One thing I have learned over the years is that God has three answers to prayer. Yes, no, and not now. We love when God tells us yes, but get frustrated when He answers one of the other two ways. Jesus trusted God when He blatantly told Him NO. See Jesus had a mission. His mission was to be a sacrifice for us. What we fail to realize is that even though God told Jesus no as He prayed this prayer, Jesus had more than enough power to put this into His own hands, but instead He put it into God’s.

Jesus was struggling with the fact that He was about to die the most brutal death known to man. Yet, He still trusted God fully. It seems like one thing goes wrong in our lives and we automatically get upset and even mad with God about it. What I’m getting at here is that we have to trust God more regardless of what is happening in our life. Sometimes God’s no’s are the best things that will ever happen to us. After all, God truly does know what is best for us. The two keys to living the Christian life are being patient and listening to what God is speaking to you within your prayer life.

Jesus asked for God to take this cup from Him, God said no. How are you responding when God is telling you no. Maybe He is telling you not right now. Trust that, listen, that is when God speaks the most. We tend to talk too much, spend more time listening to what God has for you. I believe that is truly an aspect of an impactful prayer life is when we sit back and just listen to what God has to say to us.

Don’t give up! God has a great plan for you, and through these struggles you will continue to grow as you pray. Maybe it’s a job that you've been searching for that you can’t seem to find, maybe you are struggling with something in your personal life to your family, or maybe you are battling a sickness that you just can't seem to get over. I’m certain you've been in prayer for these things, if not you should be! Give your issues to God and allow Him to answer in His time, because His timing is perfect, while ours is flawed. Never forget that God’s will is always greater than ours, we have to trust Him. Jesus trusting God’s will lead to Him being used by God to save us from our sins, just saying. TRUST HIM.