“Not my will,” is one of the most challenging statements in Scripture. When we pray we usually think that we have it all sorted out. There are those who say that we can call on God to do things for us and that He is bound to answer the way we want. There can be a “name it and claim it” attitude that controls one’s prayer life, making God nothing more than a genie in a bottle at our hue and call.
If we could look at the perfect pray-er it would have to be Jesus. As He looked into the darkness of night He knew that it involved the brutality of beatings and scourging. He knew that His creation would literally spit in His face. He knew that it would culminate in the shame and horror of being nailed to a cross and hung naked for all the world to see.
As He prayed that night He asked God the Father that He might allow this cup of pain and suffering to pass from Him, that He could bypass it if possible. And yet, before He even finished His prayer He said, “Nevertheless, not my will, but Your will be done.”
What gives any person alive the right to demand anything of God? If even His own Son acceded to His Father’s will, what does that say about us?
Oh that I would always have a “not my will” attitude when I pray.
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