"My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will; but as You will." Matthew 26:39
We can face crucial tests of life in several ways. We can pray to be spared the anguish they may impose on us. Or we can ask for the necessary courage and faith to accept the challenges they place before us.
When Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane was confronted with "the cup" -- His mission of dying for our salvation -- He prayed earnestly: "If it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me."
As disciples of Christ, we can also pray: O Father, may this cup -- this suffering of body and mind, this critical surgery, this painful task, this demanding challenge, this heavy responsibility -- may this cup be taken from us!
But can we continue with the crucial test of our faith as expressed in the phrase "yet not as I will"? If it is not possible for the nails and the cross to be removed, do we too say, "Yet not as we will; but Your will be done, heavenly Father"?
God's will was done by His Son. He did put the cup of our guilt to His lips so that our "cup" might run over with His forgiving love and with the power He grants to trust in His gracious will, especially in the crucial tests of our life.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, strengthen my faith, that I too may pray, "Yet not as I will, but as You will." Amen.
(Taken from "Words of Promise," copyright 1996 (out of print), Concordia Publishing House. For information on other devotional materials, call 1-800-325-3040.)
Today's Bible Readings: Isaiah 3-4 2 Corinthians 12
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