The resources God has given us to live a thriving life are His Word, Spirit, and People.
Read God’s Word:
Matthew 26:36-75, Mark 14:32-72, Luke 22:39-71, John 18:1-27
Act 3: God’s New Covenant People
Scene 3: Christ’s Deliverance of His People: God’s Work through the Death, Resurrection, and Enthronement of His King
Background Information: Matthew 26:36-75, Mark 14:32-72, Luke 22:39-71, John 18:1-27
“If possible, take this cup from me, but not my will but yours be done.” Jesus’ gut-wrenching cry of honesty and submission is a model for our prayers. He asked the Father for what he desperately felt, and he trusted him for what was ultimately best. We too should come before God with this kind of emotion and submission. We must not become mechanical in our prayers. God knows what is in our hearts, but it is essential that we pour them out to him in prayer. Why is this important? First it is important for us to be able to understand ourselves. We sometimes don’t fully know our own hearts until we begin to speak deeply from there. But more than some increased self-understanding, a deep relationship with someone else requires deep sharing with that person. We want a relationship with God that is more than surface, formal, and going through the motions. We are emotional beings, God has designed us to feel deeply, he wants us to relate to him from the depth of our souls. Our prayers cannot become mechanical because we are not machines. This fact also means that God has not merely programmed our choices. He has made us feeling beings, and he has made us thinking, choosing beings. We can choose to believe him or not. We can choose to love him or not. We can choose to obey him or not. We can yield to his will, or we can try to fight and rage against it. Jesus poured out his heart, and his heart was as heavy as a human heart can get. If you doubt this is true just notice that he was suffering from an extreme physical condition that causes blood to emit from the sweat glands. He can understand and relate to our own deep feelings, our anxiety, and our fears. He can understand us, and we can, and we must emulate him. We can, if we will, be like him in his obedience. We can, even in the most extreme circumstances, choose to say, “Not my will but yours be done.” If you struggle to pray honestly for what you want when in the end, you know that his will be done anyway, perhaps you are overthinking things. This is not a puzzle to be solved; this is a relationship to be nurtured. Jesus wasn’t playing at prayer and Jesus was really smart. Since the Lord Jesus had no problem asking God for what he deeply wanted and trusting God for his will to be done, neither should we.
Pray:
Praise God for…
Thank God for…
Confess your sins to God
Pray for Cameron in Japan as he ministers to young men there, seeking to bring the hope of the gospel to them. Pray for soft, receptive hearts to the Good News.
Ask God for… (what else concerns you?)
Reflect:
Write down one passage of scripture that stood out to you today.
Write down why this passage stood out to you.
Engage Community:
Text or call someone now and tell them…
– What you are praying for.
– What stood out from God’s word today.