ListenDaily – 21 June 2010: Which is better?
"Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed Him. On reaching the place, He said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." An angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him. And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When He rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. "Why are you sleeping?" He asked them. "Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation." Luke 22:39-46
This is a tough passage to read over and over, since it's as much my fault as anyone's that Jesus had to go through this. And there are so many things we could discuss; but we will stick with Jesus and prayer. The next verse:
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."
There are two things in particular, that I would like to take away from this today; one concerns our wishes, the other concerns God's will. This may actually take a few days to discuss as I think this is a sticking point for many of us in prayer -- how do we know if it's OK to pray for a certain thing.
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Jesus wanted out. For reasons we, as fellow human beings, can certainly understand for He was preparing to go through a horrific physical ordeal. My guess is, the horror in the flesh was only part of it. I believe things were getting ready to happen in the spiritual realm that we could not begin to comprehend. And Jesus wanted to be relieved from the events of the coming days.
But He had a greater desire -- to please God. He also had the knowledge that the final will of the Father would be the absolute best thing that could possibly happen, and so He completely trusted God and moved forward into His will,
Is it OK to pray for healing, recovery, a relationship, a job, or whatever? Of course. It is absolutely the right thing to do to pray for a desire of your heart, that you do not know to be against the will of God. We should obviously never pray for something we know to be sinful, or purely out of greed. But we must have a desire for the will of God to be accomplished above all else, an understanding that His will is the absolute best thing, and a willingness to move forward into His will.
Questions:
1. How does this perspective strike you?
2. What do you think of Jesus' request?
3. How does His prayer in this passage (and the next day's response compare) to your own?
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May we keep listening. Jim.
INTERESTING THOUGHTS:
"Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards.
Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him."
"I have seen many men work without praying,
though I have never seen any good come out of it;
but I have never seen a man pray without working."
Hudson Taylor
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