While Jesus was the only begotten Son; the beloved Son of God, He was also very human. When He prayed in Gethsemane, He knew exactly what was going to happen next, and like any human, He would rather not suffer it.
At the end of His prayer, He said the title words, “Nevertheless, not My will but Thine.” He also knew that to save mankind from its sinful nature, He had to go through with the final sacrifice. He was obedient to God’s will.
Have you ever asked God for something and not gotten it? I have, too. I’ve also asked God…begged God…for something and gotten it. I found out when I got it that I really didn’t want it.
One of those was a Girl Scout camping trip. It was a miserable experience. It rained the whole time, I was new to the troop and not yet truly welcomed and other events occurred that were unpleasant. I did not want what I got, and it left a big impression.
There have been other times when I’ve asked God for something, only to find out it wasn’t His will and I didn’t want it. It took several decades for the lesson to sink home.
When asking God for something, He has three answers; yes, no and wait a while. It took me a long time to realize that “no” and “wait a while” weren’t punishment or because I had done something wrong. The answers were really in my long term best interest, and would also serve His ultimate purpose. “No” and “Wait a while” are still difficult to deal with, but that particular lesson has been learned.
I heard a pastor once explain it to me in a way that made perfect sense. He likened us to three year olds, and our prayers were putting a broken toy on Daddy’s workbench. Most three year olds have a patience span of about twenty seconds, and truth told, we adults aren’t much better when it comes to prayer.
He further explained that, should our prayer not be answered in what we view as a timely fashion, we’d do exactly what the three year old would do…take it off the bench and try to fix it ourselves. As you can imagine, this only makes the situation worse.
Accepting God’s will isn’t easy. It isn’t easy to watch someone you love die. It isn’t easy to face loss of any kind. When God says no, our human nature is to try to go around Him. Instead, we ought to listen to Jesus as He faced death: Nevertheless, not My will but Thine.