Not My Will, But Thine

Ah, Friday, what a great day for God to release me from suffering! I know this works because that is what happened when Jesus asked that God take away the cup of suffering from Him! It worked right? Anyone? No? Uh oh...

We know from reading the Word that Jesus said those great words signifying His eternal submission to the will of God His Father, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." (Luke 22:42) We win because God's will did not waver and His Son did not escape the suffering. Therefore, should we ask for God to remove our suffering when our Lord and Savior did not escape His? Do we dare expect such a thing even on a Friday? Actually, given that Friday may have been the day of our Lord's greatest suffering, we might be way off base in asking for release on this day of all of them. "Nevertheless not my will, but thine..."

In this life, we face much suffering. Like Job, God doesn't send the suffering to make us hurt, He doesn't send the suffering at all. We may be targeted specifically by the Adversary, like Job, or things may just happen in this fallen world. We may have a spouse who tries to cheer us up by saying, "Curse God and die!" like Job's wife did. Or, we may have friends who gather to verbally beat a confession out of us as Job's friends did, fully convinced that Job had done something very wrong. Think of the alternative Job's friends were desperately trying to avoid: the man had done nothing wrong and yet his life was turned upside down by disaster after disaster. You can see why Job's friends earnestly wanted Job to have done something heinous that they could easily avoid doing.

I cannot claim to be without sin in my own thoughts and actions. How much more should I suffer than my Lord Jesus who did nothing wrong? Hmm, but Jesus did all the suffering for my sins in my place. Better to ask, "How do I merit such a sacrifice on my behalf?" Of course, I do not merit any such thing. The love of God sent His Son to save me from my sins. So, why again do I dare to ask for removal of suffering? God is good and I have faith in His goodness, love and mercy. No quality of mine is enough for this asking, it is all dependent upon God's goodness and love.

May God bless us on this Friday and every other day too!

Bucky