Day 5: Yet not what I will
If the Lord had not been on our side—the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away (Psalm 124:1, 4-5).
Our Father, the Lord Jesus told us, that what is impossible with man is possible with God (Luke 18:27). And yet, in complete surrender, He prayed in the tenderest, most intimate way of a trusting child to a father, "Abba, Father, everything is possible for You... Yet not what I will, but what You will" (Mark 14:36).
O that we come come to such a place of trust and surrender, Lord! But You have compassion on [us] for You know how we are formed, You remember that we are dust (Psalm 103:13-14).
Unlike us, the perfect, sinless Son of God knew You fully, and trusted You completely. He knew You, for He was God and was with You in the beginning (John 1:1). So even as He endured the worst of this fallen, broken world that He willingly entered for our sake, He entrusted Himself to You (1 Peter 2:23).
He asked us to do the same— promising His peace even as He candidly told us that in this world we will have trouble (John 16:33). Yet we struggle with trust and surrender, and our prayers are most often for comfort, and ease, and protection, and absence of difficulty for ourselves and for those we love.
But it was for Your kingdom to come and Your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven that our Lord taught us to pray, knowing that You accomplish Your will and Your kingdom-purpose in the midst of the pain, the suffering, and the difficulty of a fallen and broken world.
Father, keep us from discouragement, despair, or anxiety. Help us to learn from the life and sufferings of our Lord Jesus that You are at work even in the worst we could ever see or experience in this world, and that Your grace is sufficient in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).
We thank You for all the blessings, mercies, and protections You give us in Your kindness, Your love, and Your compassion—those we see and those we are not even aware of. We know that except for Your new mercies each day, we would be engulfed, swept over, and swept away by the torrent, the raging waters, the flood of mortal ills.
We continue to look to Your daily sustaining grace—to ask, seek, and knock as You have invited us. But teach us to trust You even when the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, when the waters roar and foam, and the mountains quake with their surging (Psalm 46:2-3). Help us to know You so well— to be so anchored in Your peace and Your power, that we can pray, as our Lord did, Yet not what I will, but what You will" (Mark 14:36).
Comments