If It Be Thy Will?
Are there times that you pray, sincerely wanting God’s will in a situation but not being sure what that is? I find myself in this situation with seemingly mundane things, as well as matters of life and death. How can I pray in faith, believing I have what I have asked, if I don’t really know that I’ve asked according to His will? If I simply add “if it be Thy will” to the end of whatever I pray, have I really prayed His will? I might be hopeful that I have, but I am not convinced that anything I’ve prayed will come to pass, for there are still many questions and lots of doubt. How can I know what God’s will is for the situation? Let’s look to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane for the answer:
Matt 26:36-44 “36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” 40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” 42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” 43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.” NIV
Jesus had made it clear throughout His ministry that He came only to do His Father’s will. In addition, before He ever came to earth, He knew exactly what the will of God was for mankind and for Him, both for His living and dying. He knew what was to be done, how it was to be accomplished, and Who was to be the sacrificial Lamb. So why did He ask the Father to take the cup of suffering from Him?
Because He was “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” there was probably some passage of time between asking the Father to take the cup from Him and praying, “Yet not as I will, but as You will.” As the passage continues we see where His real struggle takes place. Jesus wasn’t questioning the Father’s will, but was struggling with the final temptation to yield to the will of the flesh over the spirit. His spirit was willing to do what He already knew the will of the Father was. His flesh, wanting to avoid the unimaginable pain He was about to endure, fought one last time with everything it had for the defeat of His spirit. Jesus was praying so He would not fall into the temptation to do other than the Father’s will!
When He continued to say, “May Your will be done,” Jesus wasn’t hoping to cover all the possibilities for the answer, but He was shutting the door on the desire of His flesh to avoid the cross. It took three times for Him to utterly defeat the temptation of His flesh, but it didn’t take three times for Him to determine what the Father’s will was. That was settled before He ever began to pray.
How did He know so surely the will of the Father? It wasn’t because He was God, or because He was the Word of God. As a man, He knew the Father by spending time in the Scriptures and in prayer regularly. We, too, can know the Father’s will through His Word and prayer, no matter what situation we face. (Romans 12:2, Ephesians 5:17, Philippians 1:9-10, Colossians 1:9-10) Sometimes we must pray to find out His will, and then wait for the answer before praying further about it. We still might have to do battle with our flesh to get into agreement with God, just as Jesus did. But we can come away from that place of prayer in total assurance that what we have prayed will be done – because it is His will!
© Copyright 2006 Kay V. Stocking
