GOD'S WILL

Matt 26:38-39 _ 38 Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.
Stay here and keep watch with me." 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and
prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."

The night of his death is probably the lowest point, the most overwhelming, the most painful night for
the Lord Jesus. He knew exactly what would happen to him the following day. At least three times, he
told his disciples they were going to Jerusalem only to be rejected by the national leadership and would
put him to death. And so this night he felt so heavy; the thought of impending death on a cross
tormented him in his very soul.

Thus he prayed, Father take this cup from me, let me not go through it. The cup symbolizes the
judgment of God for all the sins of mankind. And as the perfect lamb of God, it is Jesus’ duty to bear the
judgment upon himself as perfect substitute for the people of world. And imagine bearing all the wrath
of God upon yourself, wouldn’t you cower in fear? In his human state, Jesus was simply overwhelmed.
And so he asks the Father, may you take this cup from me?

But then Jesus would modify his prayer by saying, “Yet not as I will, but as you will”. Jesus wouldn’t want
to superimpose his will on the Father’s will. Jesus’ pure desire was to live in perfect submission to the
Father’s will.

You see, in prayer, we can ask the Father just about anything. But we need to remember that in our
praying, God still is sovereign. We cannot command God to give us what we want. We can only request,
but we cannot impose upon him our will. The Lord Jesus prayed, “Yet not as I will, but as you will”.

In contrast, many of us want to live in perfect submission to our own will. Instead of doing what God
wants, we do what we want. The Lord wants us to worship with other believers on Sundays but we’d
rather go wander off with our peers. The Lord wants us to pray and meditate on his words but we’d
rather spend our time on facebook and other social media sites. The Lord wants us to tell the truth and
be honest but we’d rather lie and hide the truth. The Lord wants us to love others, but we’d rather love
ourselves. The Lord want us serve others, but we’d rather serve ourselves.

All too many of us don’t care what God wants and what he doesn’t want. Many of us pray, “Our Father
in heaven, hollowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”,
but we don’t care that his will be done here on earth, here in our lives.

Are we living our lives like the way Jesus did? Are we submitting to the will of the Father? Or do we need
to repent, because we are following our will instead? Are we faithful in obeying God’s commands even
when they are difficult?

Going a bit of course (but not so far), do you think this pandemic we’re going through is part of God’s
will? Do you believe God caused this (or maybe simply allowed it), to come upon us, perhaps to teach us
some things we would otherwise not learn without this crisis? Do you think that maybe, God allowed
this to happen because, by and large, we as believers of the Lord, have failed to live up to His will? If so,
do we wholeheartedly submit to God and learn whatever it is he wants us to learn? If this is part of
God’s will, will we still pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”?