And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father if you are willing, remove this cup from Me, yet not my will, but Yours be done.”  Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.  And being in agony he was praying very fervently and his sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.  Luke 22:41-43 NASB

I had a wonderful earthly father.  He was good to us.  He was saved late in life, at the age of 80.  But, he was a good father.  Chris Tomlin sings a song, Good, Good Father. In it he describes God as a patient, loving father who provides for us.  Now I know not everyone was blessed with a good earthly father and I hope that if you were not blessed with a good father that you were at least blessed with a good father figure.  In many situations, I trusted my Dad’s advice and tried to follow it.  However, I tended to be a bit headstrong at times and did not follow his advice.  Looking back, I think about how I should have followed his advice on my career choice and several other things.  Had I listened to my Dad, I wouldn’t have made some of the stupid mistakes that totally changed my life.

In our scripture passage today, we must understand that Jesus is fully God and fully man.  As the Son of God, He knows what suffering He is about to endure.  As a human being, He knows that it will be a great deal of pain and humiliation.  He begins by asking God to remove this cup from Him.  He is saying, God if there is any other way that we can do this, let’s try that.  But then He says, not My will, but Your will be done.  Jesus submits to God’s will.  He knows that God’s will is perfect.  Romans 12:2 warns us not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that through testing, we may be able to discern the will of God, what is good, acceptable and perfect.  1 Peter 2:15 tells us that by doing God’s will, we silence the ignorance of foolish people.  I have tried that one and I assure you it works.

There have been times in my life when I realized that God’s will was not what I wanted and I was heartbroken.  Sometimes it was years later before I realized that God had better plans for me.  Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God has good plans for us, plans for our welfare and not harm and plans to give us a hope and a future.

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in what we want that we fail to get what we need.  What we need is the love of our good, good Father.  What we need is to surrender our lives to His will.

I am amazed by those that will seek out and follow to the letter the advice of a fortune teller.  The bible tells us that we are to stay away from those who tell fortunes, interpret omens,  sorcerers, charmers or necromancers (those that speak to the dead).  It says that they are abominations to the Lord.  God knows the future.  He knows how many hairs are on our head and He knows what the future holds for each and every one of us.

Trust in His plans for your life.  Know that He knows what is coming and He is doing His best to prepare you for it, whatever it may be.  Submit yourself to His will, even when it is not what you had planned.  Know that He wants what is best for you.  Also know, that there may be some suffering on the way to your promised land.

I love where our scripture passage says, an angel of the Lord appeared to Him, strengthening Him.  Philippians 4:13 tells us we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.  Know that when you are going through something painful that there is a reason for it and know that you can count on God to give you the strength you need to get through.

If you are blessed to have good parents, know that they want what is best for you.  Also know that your heavenly Father knows what is best for your life and that His will is perfect.  Submit to His will today, you will be so glad you did.  Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust in the Lord with all our heart and to not lean on our own understanding.  It tells us to acknowledge Him in all that we do and He will make our paths straight.

Maybe today you are suffering as the result of making some poor decisions or not following good advice.  You know, if you had prayed before making that poor decision, there would have been a better outcome.  Trust God in all that you do.  He won’t steer your wrong.

Have a great day!