Kathemerinosatos

Text

Luke 22:40-42

⁴⁰ On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” ⁴¹ He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, ⁴² “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 

Reflection

In today’s text, Jesus has left the Last supper table with His apostles and now there are at Mt Olives and his arrest is now imminent. There two things I would like to focus on for my devotion this morning. First He asked his apostles to pray so that they will not succumb to temptations. The fact here is that we will never avoid facing temptations in life. Even our Lord Jesus was tempted for forty days and forty nights by the devil. The most important thing is what do we do when we are tempted? Jesus is asking His apostles to pray not to avoid facing temptations but to overcome them. This is where our faith is tested and we cannot overcome temptations by our strength but we need God’s help through the Holy Spirit. Second, when we pray we should align our prayers with God’s will. This is what we see in Jesus’ short prayer before his arrest. His will was for the cup of suffering in the hands of the enemies to be taken away but He is careful to subdue with will before His father’s will. Many of the times when we pray we come to God with our will and there is nothing wrong with that but is our will aligned to God’s will? Let us pray for our will but with an open heart to allow God’s will to prevail. Therefore God answers every prayer but the challenge we face is that we are not ready to accept God’s response that is not aligned to our needs. Let us remember that in our prayers and worship, God’s will supersedes ours.

Prayer

The Rev’d Canon Dr I. S. Gusha