"Be It Unto Me- Part 2"

"Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." Luke 22:42

I wonder why we think that surrendering to the will of God will not cause pain or suffering- like we talked about yesterday. As a matter of fact, when we do surrender to the will of the Lord and "bad" things begin to happen to us, we have a tendency to question if we truly heard from the Lord or did we "miss" it. Some even get angry with the Lord because they thought that just because they submitted to His will nothing bad could come their way. On the contrary, the opposite is often true.

Look at submission to the will of God in Jesus' life. Submitting to the will of the Father caused Him the greatest pain and suffering that anyone has ever endured. When Jesus said yes in the Garden to the will of the Lord- nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done-, it brought about suffering. He was taken by an angry mob, given a mock trial, beaten unmercifully, rejected by His disciples, condemned by the religious crowd, nailed to a cross, hung before the world in open shame.

But that is not the end of the story. When the end of His suffering came, when the will of the Lord was completed in His life, it opened up the door of opportunity for you and me to be able to be saved. It made the way so that we could live with Him forever in His Father's house. This is why He surrendered to the will of the Lord. This is why He said nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. This is why He was willing to go through the suffering, pain and agony. He knew His suffering was not in vain. He saw us in His kingdom living with Him forever and forever. This is what made His joy full. And the joy of knowing that we would be able to be with Him throughout all eternity far outweighed the suffering.

When we say the same thing, "nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done", it's not what we might have to go through that we need to focus on, it's the end result that we need to keep in view. For Jesus the end result of surrendering to the will of the Father was greater than the suffering He would endure. The same was true for Mary, and the same will be true for us.

Have a great day. Often there is suffering attached to the will of God, but so is joy.

For further reading:
Hebrews 12:2-4
Psalm 30:5
Hebrews 5:8,9
2 Corinthians 4:17