PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Luke 22:39–42
Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
CONSIDER THIS
Not my will, but Your will. So, who is will? Yes, that is a joke, sorry. The passage we are meditating on today is likely very familiar to many of us. It is both comforting because we see Jesus struggle with a very human emotion and it is awe-inspiring because He surpasses the response most of us would have.
In terms of the Lenten story, we are jumping to the final days of Jesus’s earthly ministry because we cannot speak of surrendering control without spending time studying Jesus’s example. After He celebrates the Passover meal with His disciples, Jesus takes His inner circle of friends out of the city and into the garden of Gethsemane to pray. When Jesus chose the space He would use for prayer, He knelt down. It was the custom of the Jewish people to stand while praying, but Jesus would choose to place His body in a position of surrender, first on His knees and then on His face. As an offering on an altar is laid out in surrender, this was the position Jesus chose. The altar is Jesus Himself. It is in this sacred space that Jesus opens Himself to His Father and asks to be saved from the painful death He knows is coming.
As a believer, it is hard to surrender to the unknown, but it is even harder to surrender when we know the future will be painful. I think of Daniel in the Old Testament who knew that he would be thrown into a fire if he did not agree to worship the Babylonian king. I think of Stephen in the book of Acts who knew he would be killed if he continued to preach about Jesus. Surrendering control for total commitment means letting go of what we want in order to follow the path God has set in front of us.
I am grateful to see Jesus ask God to release Him from pain, yet in the same breath He shows His willingness to face what is ahead if it is God’s will. Jesus provides for us, the most significant example of surrender: His life. His surrender would encompass His mind, body, and spirit. This was not Jesus’s first time at the Mount of Olives, and it was not His first time to seek the presence of His Father in prayer. It takes effort to place ourselves in the garden with Jesus. The tenderness of His heart to call on God as Father and to clearly submit Himself—not once but twice—is truly painful. Are You willing, Father, to keep Me from this ultimate sacrifice of My life? I am willing to be obedient and sacrifice My life for Your plan of salvation. Was it the regular act of obedience that made the words “not my will but yours” come out of His mouth more easily? Jesus had surrendered Himself in prayer many times throughout His ministry, but this would be the final altar and the ultimate example for us to follow.
THE PRAYER
Lord, today we pray the prayer You taught Your disciples to pray. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (Matt. 6:9–13).
THE QUESTIONS
When have you been tempted to follow your own plans instead of seeking God’s plan? Why do you think Jesus chose to kneel instead of following the custom of standing to pray? In what area of your life have you not surrendered to God’s will?
For the Awakening,
Susan Kent
Subscribe to get this in your inbox daily and please share this link with friends.
3 Responses
I have no doubt that part of “this cup” involved Jesus’s pain and suffering that would come along with crucifixion. But I read somewhere in a commentary that what Jesus most dreaded was the part of his work on the cross where He would experience the abandonment of the Father. This in my opinion, was His taste of Hell on our behalf. But then he also knew the rest of Psalm 22. Knowing the final outcome; “For the joy that lay before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2b) Therefore, because we know the final outcome, we too should have the courage to totally surrender our lives as well. Jesus is worth it.
Surrendering to God’s Will — What Jesus Is Building? “I Will Build My . . . ”
(I woke up this morning with the words that follow this paragraph forming in my heart. I posted them on my Facebook page before I came to today’s Wake-Up Call. They answer the question, “Who is Will?” Will is the members of the body of Christ being assembled and led by God’s Spirit. I believe that God’s will is that the risen Jesus be the literal Head of His gathered body not just a figurehead. When we are led by the presence of the living Jesus, He supernaturally empowers us to surpass “the response most of us would have.” “Surrendering control for total commitment means letting go of what we want in order to follow the path God has set in front of us.” I saw this literally happen at the New Room Conference in Murfreesboro two years ago when the closing speaker surrendered His time, and the leaders allowed the Holy Spirit to take full control and personally and spontaneously lead the closing session without human organization.)
“When Christ, the Son of the living God, is living inside you by His Spirit, He wants to build you together as living stones with other Christ-carriers on the foundational rock of personal, supernatural revelation (not on the shifting sand of human organization and control), so He can be the literal Head, King, and Lord and personally direct, prompt, and lead His followers, building them into Spirit-led gatherings of the members of His body who manifest and demonstrate His presence and reality. To learn how this can begin to happen in the church or small group you attend, google: Beyond Church Ekklesia.”
As an analytical thinker, I’ve wondered who heard Jesus talking to His Father in the garden. Scripture states Jesus was not only alone when He prayed, (a stone’s throw away), but His inner circle was soonzing (Peter, John and James).
This account is written in three of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. John was there, yet he didn’t write about it. Though Mark is Peter’s testimony, none of the authors were present. How did they know this account is accurate?
2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
Oh, wait.
The Bible is God inspiried. And we live and believe by faith and not by sight.
Romans 1:17
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Again, proof that God speaks, and it’s the faithful ones who believe that hear.
So, much for being analytical.
Staying 💪’n Christ
Ephesians 6:10
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.