Funny… the enemy always seems to get us just enough off the mark to make us ineffective.
He takes the example of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane when He prayed, “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42) and twist it to make us think that we cannot have an understanding of the Lord’s will in any situation.
He puts the focus on the “if thou be willing”, instead of on…
what is standing behind the “nevertheless.” But that is where it needs to be. Jesus was suffering. He was facing His crucifixion. He saw the cup before Him. And when He prayed, “if thou be willing” it was to demonstrate that He had truly come in the flesh.
But He also knew the will of the Father. And so the nevertheless was an admission of and acknowledgement of the fact that He knew what the will of the Father was. If that were not the case He would have said, “thank You for removing this cup from Me.” For He only repeated what He heard His Father say.
Did you ever have a day or a moment when you were frustrated about something… when, in the flesh you would have taken the easy out… when, in the flesh you were saying, “Go ahead and take this cup Lord”… but you knew, YOU KNEW… that it was His will? And so you had to pull a “nevertheless not my will?”
I know that I have. Actually, I’ve had a few… more than a few.
We struggle in the flesh more than we would like to admit. But we need to understand that the “nevertheless” statement is more often prayed not to receive something, but rather to have something taken.
There is a difference, and it is important. Everything good comes from God. And He works all things together for good. What the enemy intends for evil, He purposes for good.
When we have something that seems bad, we don’t have the clear kingdom vision to see it as a good thing, so we ask that it be taken… but nevertheless.
Hang in there… with all ten fingers… clinging to the cross and the promises of scripture.
SDG
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