{"id":14708,"date":"2021-03-11T17:55:19","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T00:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2021-spirit-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-03-11T18:05:50","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T01:05:50","slug":"2021-jesusprayer","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2021-jesusprayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Praying According To God\u2019s Will"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">by Dean Deppe<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-14710 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Jesus-prayer-e1615510995812.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cMy Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Matthew 26:39<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the Lord\u2019s Prayer, Jesus taught his disciples to say, \u201cYour kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven\u201d (Matthew 6:10). In today\u2019s verses Jesus models the process of seeking God\u2019s will. And we can learn from him.<\/p>\n<p>First, Jesus honestly tells his Father that he would like this trouble to pass by him. He really did not want to go through the suffering that he knew was soon coming.<\/p>\n<p>Like Jesus, we should not be ashamed to express our wishes and desires to God. God wants us to know ourselves and to establish an honest conversation with him. But too often we stop there. Our prayers are often only about what we want.<\/p>\n<p>Prayer is a dialogue, and Jesus waits for confirmation of his request. He makes this same request a second time and then a third time. He has confidence that his prayer fits the will of his Father. But eventually he is convinced that his will is not God\u2019s will. So he submits to the fact that the cup of suffering is God\u2019s will for him.<\/p>\n<p>Does this kind of asking and waiting fit how we pray? If our prayer time with God is honest and sincere, it often changes us and moves us in a new direction. We see possibilities that we were blind to before. We receive a deeper capacity to face challenges that once seemed out of reach. Continued prayer assures us of God\u2019s presence and affirms that our destiny is safe in his hands, whatever his will may be.<\/p>\n<p>Christians are sometimes guilty of using the words \u201cIf it is God\u2019s will\u201d rather flippantly. But praying that God\u2019s will be done is no easy matter. Our prayers must yield to God\u2019s will, since that is the safest place to be.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-14711 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Jesus-prayer2-e1615511082955.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><\/p>\n<p>PRAYER:\u00a0<em>Father, help me to truly seek your will as I pray. May your perfect will be accomplished in my life. In Christ, Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":14710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[35],"class_list":["post-14708","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-english-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/14708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14708"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/14708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14709,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/14708\/revisions\/14709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14708"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=14708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}