Matthew 26:39
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.
A Better Answer
Sometimes we pray for things that are
not in our best interests. The mother of the disciples John and James
asked Jesus if her sons could be allowed to sit at His right hand on the
throne next to Him, but Jesus said that she really didn’t know what she
was asking for (Matt. 20:22a). He then turned to these two disciples to
see if they were able to drink from the same cup that Jesus was going
to drink from (Matt. 20:22b), and they answered yes, they can. The point
of this encounter is that sometimes we don’t know enough to know what
to pray for. God may not give us what we asked for–He may give us
something better. Do you believe that? Can you trust God with that?
Jesus’ Prayer Rejected
Can you imagine Jesus’ own prayer being
turned down? That’s exactly what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane
when Jesus twice asked to have this cup removed, but He prayed that the
Father’s will be done over His own will (Matt. 26:42). What if the
Father had given what Jesus had asked for? Would Jesus have avoided the
cross? Would we have a way to have our sins forgiven? We will never
know, but we do know that Jesus intended to die for our sins. I don’t
think there was a chance that Jesus was ever going to avoid the cross
and thereby taking on our sins. It must have been tremendous pressure on
Him because He had to take upon Himself every vile and evil sin that
has ever been committed and will be committed in the future. Remember
that Jesus was sinless. It wasn’t as much the scourging and the
crucifixion as it was being separated from the Father for a time on the
cross and taking upon Himself all of humanity’s sins because sinfulness
is the exact opposite of the nature of God, as He is holy.
God Knows Better
Truly, God knows better than we do what
we need, and when we pray, He hears our prayers but might decline the
specific answer because He has something much better for us. Imagine you
are a parent and your child comes up to you and asks you for a plastic
toy car, but you already have something reserved that you are going to
surprise him or her with. You tell the child, “No, I am not going to
give you the little plastic car that you asked for. Instead I’m going to
give you something better. It’s a wireless remote control car!” At
first the child is disappointed because they didn’t get the plastic car
they asked for, but when they see how much better the car is and that
it’s remote controlled and a wireless one at that, they’re going to be
so much happier with it than what they previously asked for. The child
trades in a temporary disappointment for an exceedingly better answer,
so if God doesn’t give you exactly what you asked for, it might well be
that He has something better for you. That’s where you have to trust an
all-wise and all-knowing God, Who knows better than we do what is
best for us.
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