The Prayer of Surrender – Not My Will But Yours
Something that always strikes me about the last few hours of Jesus' life is how we see His humanity in a strong way. Jesus is divine, but when He came to earth He took on our human frailties and felt the fullness of human pain and struggle.
We see this most strongly when He is in the garden of Gethsemane, and He prays in Luke 22:42: "Father, if You are willing, take this cup from me; yet not My will, but Yours be done."
The Garden Struggle
Jesus didn't want to go through that pain, if God could find another way for Him to save the world. But in the end His own will was not the most important. He knew that it was the will of God the Father that mattered most. So He surrendered His will, and submitted to the Father's will.
Charles Wesley captures this beautifully in a hymn of his published in 1749 which is entitled "For One That is Sick":
"Obedient to thy will alone
To Thee in means I calmly fly
My life, I know, is not my own
To God I live, to God I die."
This is Christian living. It is surrendering your own will, and resolving to be obedient to the will of God alone. It is knowing that your life is not yours, but God's. And this is surely not easy. In fact it's impossible, without the help of God's Holy Spirit. But with God's help, we can lay down our will, and walk on in faith.
From "If" to "Anyway"
In the end it comes down to trust. Are we willing to trust God's will? Or are we holding on to what we want because we don't really trust God? It takes real trust to surrender your will and trust God's will entirely.
I think too often we place "ifs" into our prayers. "I'll follow you if you deliver me from this." But that sounds a lot more like what Satan said to Jesus to try tempt Him, then what Jesus said to God in the garden. The Christian way is not "I'll follow you if", but it's "I'll follow you anyway". Whatever does or doesn't happen, we follow and love and worship and trust God anyway.
Perhaps today you need to take a moment to submit your will to God, and to embrace His will as yours. Maybe you need to pray the words of Jesus or the words of Wesley's hymn aloud today, and give voice to your trust.
Jesus trusted the will of God the Father, and though it meant pain, it meant ultimate joy and deliverance on the other side of the pain. Submit to God the Father today, and though you might not walk the easiest road, you will find ultimate joy and deliverance in surrender, not in holding to your own will.
