It’s Okay to Ask
This past Sunday, I had a realization about a concept I had never before considered. It wasn’t that I didn’t know all the individual parts of what I’m about to describe. It’s just that I had never put them together for joint consideration and when I did, I was encouraged.
It has long been amazing to me that Jesus, knowing what all would happen to Him while on this earth, was resolute. I love the verse In Luke 9 that reads: “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem” (v. 51). Being equally human and divine, Jesus understood the heavenly plan while also considering the earthly pain. As a carpenter, he knew the rough qualities of wood and probably the pain of smaller injuries from working with it. As God, He knew that the plan would require much greater injuries including being nailed to the tree, but He was steadfast, tenacious, unwavering. However, just hours before the cross, we see the same resolute Savior kneeling in agonizing prayer, asking God to remove the cup that is before Him (Luke 22:42a).
How does this encourage me? These two accounts, taken together along with the view of Christ’s whole earthly life allow me to see that it is okay to ask for hard things to pass without it meaning that I don’t trust God’s plan. Jesus fully trusted God, and yet, when the most difficult and terrifying part was near, He asked to avoid it.
In my life, my ultimate goal is to get to heaven and take as many with me as possible. But there are days when behaving as a Christian is difficult because of a hard thing I am asked to do. Asking for help to get through it or even for it to be taken away does not mean I am weak or not resolved. It simply means I know on Whom I rely to make it through … whatever His plan may be.
That is the key. Because right after Jesus asked for the impossible, He followed the request with, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42b). It’s okay to ask for relief or deliverance. Jesus did. But He still got up and walked the path God had laid out for Him to follow. Will I?
Now consider where the plan took Jesus: Yes, He suffered. Yes, it was more difficult than we can imagine. But by staying true to the plan that God designed He is now seated at the right hand of God on high (Rom. 8:34), and “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-10). Where will God’s plan take me?
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.”
(Proverbs 3:5-6)
AUTHOR: Amber Tatum
