Matthew 6:10 [KJV]
" Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven."
Luke 22:42- 46
“Father, if You are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet I want Your Will to be done, not Mine.”
Matthew 26:39
He went on a little farther and bowed with His face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from Me. Yet I want Your Will to be done, not Mine.”
Mark 14:36
“Abba, Father,” He cried out, “everything is possible for You. Please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet I want Your Will to be done, not Mine.”
John 17:4
"I brought glory to You here on earth by completing the work You gave me to do. Now, Father, bring Me into the glory We shared before the world began."
[Emphasis added.]
The sentiment ringing in my spirit as we move towards Resurrection Sunday is the heartbeat of Jesus to always do God's Will and how at that very season of His life His humanity was probably more fully evident than ever. As a Believer this makes Him so much more real to me as the atoning High Priest who experienced the same emotions we so often do. The difference? He didn't sin. Now, like us, He cried, prayed and supplicated for another way several times, but in the end, He submitted to the Will of Father God. We as humans are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but what would it look like for us to fully submit to God's Will for our lives and trust that in the end He will get the glory and we will be the better for it? Kind of feels like jumping without a net if you don't know God and His faithfulness to fulfill HIs Word. That's why reading verses such as these encourages me to trust God in ALL things, especially the hard things.
Earlier in Matthew 6 Jesus has been providing His Disciples with a template for prayer [the Lord's Prayer] and then in the Gospels we witness Him actually praying in like manner before being taken to His death. Seeking God's Will to be done starts with prayer; not only that His Will in fact be done, but our agreement to this request. Remember, even though God is sovereign and has the final say, He is also a gentleman and won't force Himself on us, even when He convicts our hearts as a Father or uses another way to accomplish His Will. Our free will is not designed to get us into trouble, but to give us the freedom to choose God, to love God and to obey God so that His Will is released into our lives.
Jesus clearly links prayer with having the strength [via The Holy Spirit] to align our will with God's and avoid succumbing to sin and the resulting consequences. We can probably assume Judas didn't pray and certainly not the Lord's Prayer that Jesus had just taught the Disciples earlier. We won't ever know, but we do know that the weight of the consequences of His actions led him to take his own life and forever be branded as a betrayer. So, what do Jesus' prayers show us?
Jesus approached God with humility and reverence.
Jesus focused completely on God.
Jesus acknowledged God's sovereignty.
Jesus acknowledged God as His Father.
Jesus offered thanks to God.
Jesus was honest with God.
Jesus trusted God.
Jesus submitted to God's Will.
Jesus acted upon God's instructions with assurance and expectation of eventual good.
Jesus sometimes accomplished these steps in a short, bold prayer and then immediately sprang into action. That's the mark of someone confident that the hearer has already answered the request, like in John 6 when the many, many thousands were fed after a short prayer of thanks over a few morsels. Jesus had a trail of evidence of Father God's character. I prayed such a prayer once [though not for food] and it was the first time a short, focused prayer produced instant miraculous results. My mom and I like to call it the "Popeyes' Prayer" because it was prayed in the Popeyes' Chicken drive-through as we were receiving word that an important situation looked like it was going South. I've had a couple of such prayers answered like that since [though not at Popeyes!], but it is not necessarily the norm. The important thing I learned is that prayer changes things when we invite God's Will into our earthly circumstances. In the process our Faith in God is increased as is our confident expectation in His faithfulness to work things out for the best according to His timing, His Way and His Will. Lord God, thank You for Jesus. May Your Will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven. Amen, Amen and Amen🙏🏾!!!
Takeaways for you to remember:
#1 Submission starts with trust in God.
#2 Align your will with God's Will. Ask The Holy Spirit to help!
#3 God's perfect Will shall always prevail.
Yours in Christ!
Dr. Quahana
Want to enjoy some of the Scriptures inspiring this entry?
[All Scripture listed is NLT version unless otherwise noted.]
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