Monday, April 18, 2011
Matthew 26:39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."
SNIPPETS OF HOLY WEEK: JESUS PRAYS
Here we see what it truly means to pray to our Father. How foolish and trifling our prayers and our thoughts are in comparison to Christ's.
How often don't we attempt to make our prayer pleasing to God, as though if we are careful only to pray for the right things in the right way we have a better chance on convincing the Lord to help us. Yet Jesus, fully aware that what He is asking is not the path the Father has set before Him, brings this petition to the Father anyway, opening His heart to His Father.
How often don't we attempt to use prayer to get things from the Father; to tell Him what we need and plead for what we want. Yet Christ, although opening His heart to the Father, pleads for what the Father wants.
How often are we not timid about giving all things into the hands of the Father, scared that He will indeed give us His will and that such a path is not what we want. Yet Jesus grabs hold of the Fathers will, pleading for it and only it -- knowing that all other ways lead to dust.
The Father's way can indeed be dark, and at times we shrink from His will, not desiring that it be done. Yet Christ did not shrink. He knew that as dark as that path was, on the other side was our salvation. Although we fail often to seek God's will in our prayer lives, we face even our own sin with the cross of Christ laid on top, confident that in this also Jesus fulfilled all righteousness for us.
Let us therefore learn to pray with Jesus, pleading for the Father's will and way.
