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."   Matthew 26:39, NIV

Perhaps no other passage within Scripture shows Jesus' absolute commitment to do God's will as does the one above. We are not told why Jesus wanted the cup to pass from Him, since He knew that His purpose in coming to earth was to die in our place that our sins might be forgiven. Perhaps He wanted to remain with His apostles a while longer. Maybe it was because He realized that there were still so many people who needed His help and His healing. Maybe it was because He knew that the moment He took our sins upon Himself that God would have to forsake Him.

But whatever the reason was, His overriding devotion to doing the will of His Father was more important than His personal desire to not go to the cross at that time. So He prayed that God's will be done.

There are so many lessons that we can draw from this event, but perhaps the most important is this: No matter what we are going through, and no matter what we would like to have happen, God's will is always best. His will may indeed be to grant us just what we are praying for, but, as in this instance in the life of Christ, we see that sometimes God's will is different from our personal desires.

And Jesus understood this so He asked for and received God's will. Can we do anything less?

Today's reading is from Matthew 26. I pray that God will richly bless you as you seek to  better understand His will.