Not my will

He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." – Matthew 26.39 

I realise that I don’t know everything about Christians who disagree with me on various issues, but sometimes I really don’t understand.

There are some churches and preachers who try to tell us that if a Christian really wants something and prays with enough faith that God is bound to give it to them. They tell us that if we don’t get what we pray for it is because we are not trusting God enough.

A few years ago I was praying with some believers here about a perceived need. This was in a decent, Bible believing church. When it came my turn to pray I asked the Lord to provide this particular need in the way were praying and said ‘If it is your will.’

A young preacher challenged me and said that was a weak prayer. He said, ‘We need to have the faith to say ‘Lord, give it to us and give it to us now!’’

What made it worse was that the pastor backed him up!

There are several passages of scripture we could go to that point out problems with this teaching, but I think it can be settled just by this one incident and by looking at Jesus’ simple prayer.

Jesus knew what was coming next. He knew that He was about to be arrested, scourged, mocked, tried and convicted, and finally nailed to the cross.

He left the disciples in the garden and went apart to pray. He asked God if it were possible to spare Him the suffering, but still, if not, that God’s will be done. We went back to find the disciples sleeping. Jesus came back and prayed again, ‘Father, if this can’t be accomplished without this, your will be done.’

When I look at this I see Jesus, God in the flesh, who willingly made Himself obedient, praying to God the Father. He asked God to spare Him the suffering if there was any other way, but still was willing to accept God’s will.

It’s pretty simple – if Jesus prayed according to the will of God, shouldn’t we pray the same way?

Am I missing something here?