Not My Will, But Yours Be Done

Not my will. But yours be done. Luke 22:42
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matt.6:10

Jesus prayed the words He taught us to pray.  He was in the garden of Gethsemane, crying and sweating drops of blood, under such heavy duress we will never experience.  He was asking His Father if there was another way, any other idea He might have, to save people from their sins.  He understood that the Father's plan was to sacrifice the perfect Lamb of God, the God Man: Himself.  He knew all his days led to this most important and costly sacrifice of His body.  His spirit was in agony not because of the physical torture that awaited him as much as the spiritual agony He would endure.  For the Father's will was to crush Him under the weight of the world's sins.  That's a lot of weight.  And this punishment He would suffer would separate Him from His Father for the first time in all eternity.  This is what He agonized over.  And yet, He surrendered, and later cried, "Abba ('Daddy'), Father, why have You forsaken Me?”

Thank God Jesus said yes to God's plan of redemption for us.  This is our way of salvation.  Our gift of righteousness bought with His blood.

And He calls us to pray, "not my will, but Yours be done."
What significant plans might God have for your life?  This morning I was
prompted to pray this prayer at 6 am, right when I was about to go back to sleep to catch up on the hour or two I'd missed in the night.  But as soon as I prayed for His will to be done, I was energized.  I got out of bed and began having a very productive day.  The best part was babysitting my precious grand daughter while her mom tried to catch up on much needed sleep.  Ellie and I took a nice stroll around our neighborhood.  So peaceful!

As I pondered the power of this prayer, 'not my will but yours be done', I thought of how amazing it is.  The implication is that we can choose to do the opposite, 'my will, not Yours be done!'.  In fact, this is our natural, default mode.  And how difficult it can be!  Doing life on our terms, in our strength. But if we learn to pray this prayer from the heart, and give God permission to lead us, we can experience peace, power and momentum, as we go with His plan.  And who knows the many things He has prepared for us to enjoy!  And when it's hard, as it will be sometimes, we can know we are smack dab in the middle of His will.  So it will be well with our souls.

Maybe his plan for you or me will be heroic,  but most likely not!   Whatever it may be, let's embrace His purpose for our lives.