HIGHLIGHT
Mark 14:36 (ESV): 36 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
EXPLAIN
It was only a short time before Judas Iscariot would arrive with soldiers to arrest Jesus. Jesus had led his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane again and prepared to pray. He begged the disciples, especially Peter, James and John, to pray with him.
Mark records these words during Jesus’ first session of prayer with the Father. Jesus paused from praying to go to his disciples and he begged them again to pray. But they couldn’t seem to stay awake.
While the climax of the Cross came the next day, truly the battle of Jesus’ obedience to the Father in dying for the sins of the world appears to have been settled with his time of prayer in the night.
APPLY
The point of prayer is not to get what we think we need or want. Rather, the Father longs for relationship with us, so that he can guide us in the path he has planned for us.
It is not wrong to express our needs or desires to the Father, yet our proper posture is willing submission to the will of the Father.
RESPOND
Heavenly Father, deepen my prayer life with you. Help me to stay near you by prayer, always willingly submitting my will to yours. Amen.