Opening your life to God’s Word on a consistent basis over a long period of time will slowly but surely begin to shape your thoughts, perspective, attitudes, and actions. You will start out just reading God’s Word and it will eventually begin to read you! God’s truth will challenge you and help you to see as God sees! Watch how God’s perspective will begin to influence you in ways you never imagined! Stick with the plan! Open your heart to God and He will transform you from the inside out!
In His Love,
Pastor Jerry
Matthew 26: 36-46
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 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.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
This is one of the greatest prayers ever prayed. It is in this hour of greatest agony while His soul is overwhelmed with sorrow and the weight of the world’s sin that is upon Him that Jesus prays something that is absolutely vital to the heart of our conversation with our heavenly Father in prayer: “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” Ultimately, the destination of every prayer is that our heart would align with God’s heart…..that our will would be His will. Sometimes we treat prayer as our opportunity to inform God concerning our life and what He needs to do. It is as if we believe we have the answers and we just need to get God on our side. Every conversation with the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer must arrive at just one perspective and one conclusion: “May Your will be done.”
Today, you and I have many plans. What if we put those aside and spent some time on our knees asking God to align our heart to His heart…..rearrange our plans so that His plan would emerge in our living? What is that one thing in your life today where you are bound and determined that your way must prevail? Surrender your plan for God’s plan…..your will for God’s will.
Prayer Focus: Next Gen Ministries
Beach United Methodist Church
325 7th Avenue North
Jacksonville Beach, Florida, 32250
904.249.2343