Keeping Your Power Under Control
Matthew 26:39 Then Jesus went on a little farther away from them. He fell to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, don't make me drink from this cup. But do what you want, not what I want."
Do you know how sometimes, when someone says something profound, it’s the sort of thing that sticks with you for a lifetime? Years ago, I heard a message on meekness – it was around what Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
On the surface of it, it seems that what Jesus is saying here, is a complete contradiction. How could the meek possibly ever inherit the earth? But the preacher said this: Meekness isn’t weakness; it’s power under control.
Would you call Jesus weak? I didn’t think so! Yet He was meek.
Then Jesus went on a little farther away from them. He fell to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, don’t make me drink from this cup. But do what you want, not what I want.” (Matthew 26:39)
Would you say that Jesus was struggling that night to do what His Father had called Him to do? To go to the cross and die a grizzly death for the likes of thee and me? Sure He was! It was a terrible thing … the prospect of crucifixion.
And yet, right there in the Garden of Gethsemane, as He struggled in prayer, He laid His power aside, to do what He was called to do. That’s what Easter’s about. God humbling Himself to serve sinners – yeah I know to some that word seems a little anachronistic but I’ll use it anyway – sinners, like you and me, who simply didn’t deserve it.
Most of us have power over something, or someone. But sometimes we need to lay that power aside in favour of love. That’s what meekness is. Meekness is power under control.
And when we learn to control our use of that power, that’s when it becomes truly powerful.
In what relationship today, do you need to lay your power aside in favour of love. Will it hurt? Sure it will. Will you suffer? Sure you will. Do it anyway. Because there are times when power is powerless to achieve what needs to be achieved. There are times when the only thing that will do it, is the sacrifice and the suffering of true love.
My Father, if it is possible, don’t make me drink from this cup. But do what you want, not what I want.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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