Not My Will

When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane struggling over what He was facing, He ended His gut-wrenching prayer with the words, “Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Not easy words to say. Not for Jesus. Not for us. We like to have our own way. That’s kind of a built-in default setting. But I’m trying to learn from the Master.

When things aren’t going my way: “Not my will, but yours be done.”

When things look hopeless: “Not my will, but yours be done.”

When I don’t understand why: “Not my will, but yours be done.”

On what basis can this be possible?

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways,

and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV).

“You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it” (Psalm 139:5-6. ESV).

God’s rhetorical questions to Job: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

Tell me, if you understand. Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?” Job 38:4, 22-23, NIV).

“Frankly, I stand amazed at the unfathomable complexity of God’s wisdom and God’s knowledge. How could man ever understand his reasons for action, or explain his methods of working?” (Romans 11:33-34, J. B. Phillips).

In other words, who are we to question the almighty God? So I will humbly submit to His will, recognizing that it is better than mine. Are you in a place where you need to pray for His will, not yours, to be done today?