Thy Will Be Done
In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed “…nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt”; it was from His surrender to the Fathers will that we see Him walking up the hill to Calvary ready to die on a cruel cross.
Sometimes God’s will does not make sense to us but trust God He knows better than we do. A good biblical example is Joseph, his brothers were jealous and they threw him into a dark well and sold as a slave. He endured many hardships but many years later he meets his brothers–they thought he was dead–but he was very much alive. Listen to what he said Genesis 45:5, “Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.” Sure Josephs way was difficult but he kept his faith never giving up and God used him to save and restore an entire nation.
It was out of surrender to the Fathers will that our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane chose to go to a cross. He was laid in an empty tomb and then rose on the third day and redeemed the world. It started with a choice to do the Fathers will. Where did he receive the power to go all the way to the cross? He received the power from His Father by spending time with Him in intimate communion.
It is hard to go through deep dark valleys in life. But it is also wonderful to see what God can do with those valleys. When we pray thy will be done it is really an enlistment for action, it is a dedication of a sold out life. You can rebel against God and live defeated or surrender and allow God’s will to become your will and watch with amazement as God moves. When we surrender to God’s will it will take the dread out of tomorrow; obedience to God’s will today means that God assumes the responsibility for my tomorrows.
We are a witness to the world; our church is an outpost to the future community of boys, girls, men and women who are struggling with life. When Jesus prayed for His church he prayed for protection not isolation. He did not pray that God would take us out of this world but that he would protect us from the evil one. We live in a world that rejects Christ so we must pray for believers in the church to get a heart to do His will and reach the lost. How can the lost hear if someone doesn’t tell them? We must stay occupied with the things of God, not preoccupied with things that make no eternal difference.
We may never fully know his will but what we do know we can respond to. We know that he will return again and that his kingdom is a little closer than it was yesterday and that the end is nearer. The heart beat of Jesus’ life was love and from that love flowed the prayer “your will be done”.
Will you surrender to Gods will and be a vessel He can use? Today pray for your church and ask God for His will to be done in and through the Praise Center congregation.