Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.” Today's episode discusses how amazing it was that Jesus chose God's will over His own will, even though it cost Him greatly. Then, it goes on to discuss how we often don't choose God's will even when it would not cost us much. Then it talks about how we all have the same power Jesus had living inside of Him, living inside of us. We are stronger than we think we are! Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
You, Too, Have The Power To Choose God’s Will
Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.”
This is the beginning of Holy Week. We are getting closer and closer to the day Jesus died on the cross for our sins. In today’s verse, we see that Jesus struggled with this. If you have ever doubted Jesus’s humanity, this is a great witness to it. Jesus knew what was in front of Him. He knew the pain, the agony, the betrayal, the mocking, all of it. He knew, and He really didn’t want to go through it. He asked the Father if He was willing to take this cup from Him. He asked His dad to save Him if He was willing to. Yet Jesus said, “Still, not my will but yours be done.” Jesus, even though He knew what was coming, He still submitted to the Father’s will. This is the ultimate witness of obedience and of love. The reason I say obedience is because Jesus was still willing to be obedient to the Father’s will, even though the cost was great to Him. I say love because Jesus was doing this for not only love for his Father but also for His love for us.
He asked the Father to let this cup pass from Him because He knew how awful it would be. Yet, He also knew it was the only way to free us from our past mistakes, to put things right, and to repent for our original sin. Ellen G. White said, “Christ was treated as we deserve that we may be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. “By His stripes, we are healed.”
When I read this verse, I immediately thought of how many times we are not willing to do God’s will. I thought of how many times we know what God wants us to do and choose to do something that we want to do. I am talking to myself as much as I am talking to all of you today. Take a moment to think about it. If you are honest with yourself, I bet you can think of plenty of times when you knew God wanted you to do something, and yet you chose to do something else.
I will give you some examples that come to my mind. When I was in college, I knew God wanted me to be at church on Saturday or Sunday, yet I wanted to be doing anything else but being in church. Or when I first got married and we would want to sleep in, even though we knew God wanted us to be in church. When it was a Friday during Lent, and someone invited us over for some sort of meat dish. Or, we decide to go out to eat, and the meat dish looks better than the fish dish. When I knew the Lord wanted me to fast an hour before communion, and yet I really wanted to drink a cup of tea or have a quick bite to eat before mass. These are just a few of the many examples that I can think of when I knew what the Lord wanted me to do and I didn’t do it. These are a few examples of many when I decided my will was more important than the Lord’s will. I am sure you have your examples too.
What I find amazing is that these are all instances where following God’s will really wouldn’t have cost me any great sacrifice. At most, I would have been inconvenienced or inconvenienced someone else. There would not have been anything more than a bit of discomfort on my part, and yet I still chose my will over the Lord’s will. I would like to claim that I was young and really didn’t know what I was doing. However, I can remember distinctly knowing what God wanted me to do and choosing to do what I wanted to do, so I can’t even claim ignorance.
Yet, Jesus, who knew exactly what was coming His way, was able to say, Yet, not my will but yours. This was at a great cost to Jesus. He was going to have to suffer pain; I hope none of us have ever known. He was going to have to suffer humiliation like I pray none of us have ever seen. I am sure he suffered heartache as well. I can’t imagine what it was like for Him to watch as one of His very own disciples betrayed Him. I can’t imagine what it was like for Him to watch as those who followed him now yelled crucify him. I can’t imagine what it was like for Him to know His beloved Peter, whom he made the cornerstone of the church, would deny Him 3 times.
Christ knew all of that was coming, and yet He was still able to say, not my will but yours be done. I think sometimes we can minimize this because we tell ourselves things like, “Of course, He could do God’s will; he is fully God and fully Human.” The thing is He did not use his divine powers while He was on earth. The only divine powers He used on Earth were those he received from the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of Him. And guess what? We have that same Holy Spirit living inside of us. Do you know what this means? This means we are capable of choosing to do the Father’s will also.
The only difference is that Jesus knew His identity and His authority in the Father. He knew He was the Son of God. We are still learning this. We tend to believe the enemy when he tells us we don’t have any willpower. When he tells us, we aren’t strong enough to say no to our wants and desires. He tells us we are weak, and we believe him because we don’t know the power we have living inside of us. However, if the Holy Spirit could help Jesus accept the cross because it was God’s will, He could surely help us give up the things we have been refusing to give up. He could help us make the small sacrifices God is calling us to make. We just have to realize the power we have living inside of us and start relying on that power instead of our own power. Can you do that today? Can you acknowledge that, yes, on your own, you are helpless to make the changes God is calling you to make? However, when you partner with the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of you, There isn’t anything you can’t do. Stop listening to the enemy telling you that you have to keep doing that thing you don’t want to do. You are stronger than you know. You have the same power that Jesus had living inside of Him. You have the same Holy Spirit He had. You are strong!!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help us put your will first. Help us realize that you gave us the Holy Spirit to empower us. Help us see that you have already given us everything we will ever need to do whatever you ask us to do. Help us see that your will is for our best. Help us realize our identity and authority as your sons and daughters. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I look forward to meeting you again tomorrow. Mentoring is tomorrow night. I will be teaching on the Holy Spirit and the power we receive from it. I hope you can join me. I will put a link in the show notes. CLICK HERE for mentoring. Or you can go to my website, WalkboldlywithJesus.com. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in November 2023 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group or these words, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup. Today’s Word from the Lord is (Continued from yesterday’s image of the back of the washer) “In my mercy, I will reconnect you to the flow of my life-giving waters. When we are reconnected together, the power of our hearts flowing together will wash, cleanse, and make new many who are wallowing in the muck and mire of the world. Stay connected to me so that grace and mercy will flow out to all who need it.”