Why pray this painful prayer so much easier to speak than to live?
By Dean Collins
What do you do when what needs to be accomplished turns into a situation that feels impossible?
The unbearable pain that comes with grief. The fatigue and the suffering of chemo. The shock of losing a job. The suffering accompanying divorce and the rebuilding of life afterward.
J.K. Rowling speaks of the many rejections by publishers of her first Harry Potter manuscript. Michael Jordan didn't make the high school varsity team his sophomore year.
There are many stories of great companies that nearly closed due to a lost deal, too much debt, a turn in the economy, a competitor’s sudden success, going bankrupt, and on and on.
Heavy reality
Seemingly impossible situations are everywhere. But perhaps none is more overwhelming than what Jesus faced in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The heavy reality of what was ahead for him seemed unbearable. With face and body pressed against the ground in desperate prayer, he appealed to the tenderness of his Abba Father, still acknowledging that all things are possible for Almighty God. Everything in Jesus yearned for a different experience for himself. He knew what was coming and he prayed, “Remove this cup from me.” We wouldn’t dare fault anyone for wanting to avoid crucifixion. It must have been agonizing for his Father to hear.
Jesus may have paused to consider his next words. Love for his Father and love for humanity compelled him. Full, unwavering obedience led him to pray, “Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Painful prayer
We don’t know ahead of our tough moments how we will respond when they come. But we will be obedient and loving in our desperate situation only if we prepare now. How many times had Jesus gone off alone to be with his Father? How many times had he told him, “Not my will, but yours”? We know Gethsemane wasn’t the first time, because long before this, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had included that idea in his model prayer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” Facing tough, desperate, uncertain times includes the hard and painful prayer of submitting our wills to God’s.
Faithful obedience
Jesus told his Father what his Father already knew. All things are possible for you! Jesus told his disciples and other listeners the same thing. “All things are possible for one who believes. With man, many things look impossible, and frankly are impossible, but no situation is one that God cannot change.” It is hard to cope when we don’t know what happens next. In such moments we can pray—and we must pray—for what only God can do. He encouraged us to pray with such boldness. But also pray for courage to be obedient and faithful regardless of our desired outcome. This is not being uncertain. It is being faithful.
We can pray—and we must pray—for what only God can do.
Jesus faithfully followed the will of his Father through the suffering and onto the cross and until his death. But even in his most excruciating moments, he prayed that God would forgive those who pushed for his death. He gave instructions for the care of his mother. He spoke life into another who suffered on a cross beside his. Praying for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven is easier to say than it is to live. But the more we pray it, the greater the likelihood that we will live accordingly. And the more we surrender, the more people will come to know Jesus and experience his great love.
Your time with God’s Word
Mark 14:36; Matthew 6:10; Mark 9:23; 10:27 ESV
Photo by Samuel Martins at Unsplash
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