A Matter Of Trust

A Matter of Trust

Read: Matthew 26:36-39

“Not as I will, but as you will.”

Matthew 26:39

“Trust involves letting go and knowing God will catch you.”

—James Dobson

IN WORD Jesus taught us to pray like this, resigning our will to that of the Father (Matthew 6:10). And then He went out and followed His own teaching. It is a mystery to us that there might be some discrepancy between the Father’s will and the Son’s, though we can certainly understand the impulses of human flesh resisting the torture of the Cross. But with us, there is no mystery. There is frequently a divergence between the divine will and ours; we face constant tension between our impulses and His direction.

In our prayer life, this is especially troublesome. We know how to pray for our desires, but we wonder whether our desires are consistent with His. We are told to pray specifically, but taught to pray according to His will. And when we don’t know the specifics of His will, this is a problem. How do we overcome it?

George Müller, the nineteenth-century believer who ran orphanages entirely on faith, said that in every prayer he sought to begin with no will of his own. His first words in each request were a disavowal of his own preferences. After self-will was removed, God’s will would become clear. Many believers testify to the same principle: God’s will becomes evident when ours becomes subdued. Then we can pray—and act—as specifically as He directs.

IN DEED The issue this usually raises for us is trust. It’s a hard thing to resign self-will in a situation and cast ourselves with unreserved abandonment on the Savior. It feels careless, like jumping off a cliff and hoping He’ll catch us. As trustworthy as He is, we remain suspicious that He might not act in our best interests—that there might be some conflict between what is best for His kingdom and what is best for us.

But there never is. There’s no difference between His will and what we would want for ourselves if only we knew all the details. We can say “not as I will” and always trust Him to step in with His best. With His character, He could do no less.