Yet… Not My Will, But Yours
Let’s me share what I think is the hardest yet of all. And it’s a yet that came from the very lips of Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane. “Abba , Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”” (Mark 14:36 NIV11)
Wow. God you can do anything. And so please, do this. Yet...Yet not my will, but yours be done. It takes a certain depth of faith to pray this prayer.
One of the mistakes our culture has made, is we see God as a kind of divine butler. We think God should bend to our will! And we think if we ask for XYZ, God will do it because we have faith!
Wrong. Jesus himself goes to God and says this is what I want... yet. Your will be done. A great prayer of faith!
AW Pink the great theologian wrote these words “No prayer is pleasing to God unless the spirit actuating it is “not my will, but Thine be done.” I like that! Perhaps prayer is only prayer if we are saying yet not my will, but Yours be done.
Surrender With Trust
I invite you to take a moment today and think about the things you desire in life. The things you are hoping for and praying for.
Maybe it’s success, progress, excellence. Good things to aim for.
Maybe it’s health, healing, wellness. Also, good things to possess.
Maybe it’s some sort of change in your life – change of job, change of situation, change of circumstance.
Maybe it’s for a relationship to happen, or end, or change.
Maybe you’re praying something like this for somebody else in your life.
Can I encourage us to be very intentional, about always using this yet?
Agnes Sanford was one of the great healers of the 20th century. She had a powerful healing ministry – not showy and full of greed like some of the televangelists we see, but compassionate and gentle and able to heal through God’s grace in a wonderful way. But she believed that her husband was kept alive for years after he should have died, because some members of their church kept on praying for his healing, long after it was time for him to go. In the last few years of his life, he was only a shadow of the person he had once been. According to Agnes their affection for him was very real, but misguided. They held on to him too long.
Yield to God
Perhaps if they had focused more on “yet not our will, but yours be done”… This man would’ve found his peace sooner than he did.
Bring your prayers and requests to God in faith, friends. But always remember what Jesus said in His prayer, when he said “yet… not my will but yours be done.”
