Luke 22:41-42 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.”
If you have been following the daily verses and listened to the sermon posted on Monday then you know we have been focusing on prayer. In the past couple of years prayer has become such an important and much bigger part of my life. I grew up thinking prayer was something we did at church, before we ate, and before we went to bed. God has shown me what prayer truly means and how important it is.
Prayer is interacting with God. It isn’t something that has to be done in a formal setting or formal manner. It is something we can and should do throughout our day even without stopping what we are doing. Just like we often talk to our friends while we do something, we can be talking to God while we are working or doing other tasks throughout our day. I mean really, if you could text God directly wouldn’t you do it? Wouldn’t you spend a huge chunk of your day interacting with him? I mean we spend so much time interacting with others through facebook, twitter, and texts I can imagine if we were able to interact directly with God we would do it all the time. Or would we? Right now you can interact with Him through your words and thoughts, but do you? I know he doesn’t always give back a clear or audible response but through the Holy Spirit he can still interactive with us.
Can you imagine not speaking with your best friend in the world for a year? How about even a month or week? Some people can’t go a day without talking to their bestie. It is important they share everything together. How often do we go long periods of time with out talking to God? Is our relationship with our friends more intimate than our relationship with Christ? We should be working to grow closer to God every day and a wonderful way to do that is by interacting with Him in prayer. Don’t you want to talk to Him about what is going on in your life, the good and the bad? Share your struggles and needs with Him? Tell Him about other people we know that are going through a difficult time.
I thought it was only appropriate to talk about Jesus’ prayer in Luke 22 this week with Easter coming on Sunday. Jesus had gone to the Garden of Gethsemane knowing the time of His arrest and death was close. He went away by himself and scripture tells us he “knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.””
Jesus was interacting with His Father. He knew the sin penalty had to be paid. He was willing to pay it but He asked His Father if it could be done another way. When I read this verse I just keep hearing the same words over and over again, “not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus knew God’s will and He was willing to do whatever He needed to do to make it happen. I wonder when we pray how often we pray like that. Or like me do your prayers sometimes focus on “my” plan and what I want and what I need and what I desire. I know my prayers can sometimes turn “I” centered instead of “God’s will” centered.
As Christians we should want nothing more than to do the will of God, even if it isn’t what our desires are or what we think is best! We need to be praying that God will reveal His will to us and then he will give us the wisdom, courage, strength and patience to live it out. Not our will, but His be done in our life! May God Be Glorified thought it!