“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Jesus prayed this before surrendering to the fate of taking on the sins of the world.
On a walk this morning, I was thinking that, from what we see in Scripture, the hardest thing Jesus ever had to do wasn’t going to the cross, but surrendering His will.
Jesus prays that prayer three times. He had made the choice with His mind the first time…I don’t want to do this. Father, if there’s another way, take that route. But if this is what has to be, I want to do it Your way.
But it wasn’t settled in His heart. He had to pray it again. And again.
But He did get it settled and because He did, we can live free from the bondage of sin and in the power of His resurrection.
“Not My will, but Yours” was not about teaching us how to pray. This was Jesus wrestling over fully surrendering His will.
It was the hardest thing He ever had to do.
Is your will surrendered? We should live, like Jesus did, with a humble heart, a worshipful heart, a heart bowed before the Father. But where does your will want to go its own way? Where do you need to surrender?
Let’s apply this to parenting and homeschooling. Have you gotten ideas as to what your children should be when they grow up? That doesn’t have to mean doctor or lawyer, though it certainly applies to that as well. But what about your expectations for what your children should look and act like? What about your expectations for their future education and life path? Have you made goals taken from your own heart or from following the teaching of others?
Have you gotten ideas about what a family should look like and do from reading a book, a blog, watching videos, or just conforming to those around you?
Have you gotten ideas about what homeschooling should look like from others?
Have you surrendered your family, your parenting, your homeschooling to God? Are you willing to give up the image you are after for your children and family and seek only to be transformed into the image of Christ?
Take yourself, your family, your homeschooling, your habits, your attitudes, your ministries, your work, your dreams and goals, all of everything of who you are and that’s in your life, and surrender it up on the altar. Ask for His holy fire to come and consume or purify, either taking it away or consecrating it for His purposes.
His purposes are glorious and wonderous. What He accomplishes is eternal. What we do today only matters here and now unless the Lord breathes His life into it. Then it impacts forever.
Thank you for this reflection, encouragement and blessing! Praise the Lord.
Much needed reminder today, for his timing is perfect ❣️ Thank you!
As always, a very timely post from you. Thank you so much for being a vessel for His will and direction. My oldest is intent on relocating to another state, hours away from family and support system. I brought up pros and cons but ultimately surrendered the need to hang on too tightly to God, and will trust Him to keep my son in His care.
I love this! Thank you for sharing!
I love this so much! God bless you and everything you do!!
I am so appreciative for you and your program!!! You have allowed myself and my family the time needed to grow closer to God in this ridiculously fast paced world. Thank you again!! God bless you and all you do!!!
Receiving this e-mail this morning was an answer to prayer. I said a long prayer the night before to God that I was giving my worries and concerns to Him because I’m exhausted in finding the answers and worrying about outcomes. Two of the main things were concerns for my son because he is going to be 18 but has no motivation or desire to get his drivers license. Another was about our homeschool and thinking I needed to change curriculum because of being “influenced “ by what other homeschool parents are doing on social media. After ordering the curriculum I began to second guess and I knew I had a conviction before to not use it. I tried to ignore that conviction and ordered it anyway. There were some personal prayer requests as well. So this morning it is like God made decisions for me or helped me “reset “ my thoughts and put me on the right path. My son is going to be an adult and I have to let go and let him start to tackle adult issues. The curriculum I ordered accidentally got re-routed back to the curriculum company and the other order my husband asked if we could have the delivery truck return to sender and he said yes and sent it back. Another sign was my iPhone somehow got to “change wallpaper “ setting on my phone and it replaced my Home Screen picture with a photo from 2 years ago of a picture I took of an almost triple rainbow we saw in the sky after a thunderstorm. Then as I mentioned I got your e-mail and it was more direction of what I need to do. God is good. It’s hard to surrender things in our life to Him but it is so worth it when we do!
He got your attention! He’s a marvelously good God!