Daily Devotional for Thursday, November 9

The Agony of Jesus

“And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt,” Mark 14:36.

Entire movies have been made around the premise of some person, or persons, knowing what will happen in the future. In fact, entire movie franchises have been created on this premise. The franchise “Back to the Future” comes to mind. The entire series, in one way or another, revolved around the efforts of the characters to somehow fix the future. Obviously, it all got very odd and confusing very quickly. Honestly, I cannot imagine why a person would want to know all of what their earthly future holds. If the news was good news, then some of the fun of seeing it unfold would be gone. If the news were bad, then many would spend their remaining time sad, just waiting for the bad thing to come.

Jesus knew His future. Jesus clearly understood what was waiting for Him when He arrived in Jerusalem. In an earthly sense, Jesus’ future was nothing but bad news. He was to be betrayed by His friend, abandoned by other friends, mocked and tortured and finally killed. I would not want to know all of that, would you? I am fairly sure that if I did know, I would do anything I could to avoid all of that.

Jesus the man did not really want to do all of that, either. In fact, He prayed to His Father that if possible He would not have to do the things He knew were coming. Yet, He also stated His willingness to do the Father’s will, regardless of the impact on His own life. In this case, Jesus again set the perfect example for us all. Are you willing to follow the Father’s will into both the good times and the bad times? Jesus was.

JUST A THOUGHT: If we prayed for God’s will and knew His will would be painful for us, would we still want it? Would we still be willing?

Wally Fry