As Jesus was preparing Himself for the Cross, He knew he was faced with the suffering, weight and burden of the sin of humanity. He was about to be made sin for us. (2 Cor. 5:21) He was about to be made a curse for us. (Gal. 3:13) He was about to ‘take up our infirmities and bear our diseases.’ (Matt. 8:17) He was about to suffer and die in our place. (Hebrews 2:14) Knowing all these things were ahead of Him, He prayed “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Luke 22:42)
No one in history has, or ever will have to face what Jesus faced. Only His blood could pay the price for our sin because He was the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. (1 Peter 1:9) And yet He was our model. A model of how to obey God no matter what life brings. It’s easy to do God’s will when all is going well, but the rubber meets the road when difficulties and challenges arise, we need to be determined to surrender our will to the will of the Father.
And this act of surrender to the will of God, is the Cross we carry. Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 16:24 “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” And of course it is our of our love for Jesus, that we willingly choose to go His way, knowing that He has our best interests at heart. Jesus knew He had to go to the Cross to redeem us.
Hebrews 12:2 tells us “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Surrendering our lives to the will of God brings great joy to us and impacts the lives of so many others! When we say ‘God, not my will, but your will be done,’ we are saying ‘I know you know what is best for me and my life, I trust you.’
I have had so many times in my own life where I have wrestled with the will of God, and I know you will have had those moments too! Things may be difficult for you right now, sometimes there is a huge price to pay to choose to obey God. But today I want to encourage you, ‘God knows what is best for you!’ When you choose His will over your own, it is an act of love and surrender to a loving Heavenly Father. I want to encourage you, as you continue to surrender your will to the will of God, like Jesus did, not only will great blessing be released into your life, you will become a channel of great blessing to others!
