LETTING GOD’S SOVEREIGN WILL MANIFEST IN OUR LIVES
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“Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” – Mark 14:36 –
Jesus is on His knees in the Garden of Gethsemane. Dawn has not yet come. At this, His lowest point in His earthly ministry, He calls in desperation to His loving “Abba Father”. This name is one of endearment… a call to the One closest to His heart. “Abba” is the Aramaic word for father. The repetition implies the earnestness of His plea.
Jesus cries out with deep emotion to the One who can take His cup away… who can change His course… who can call off His mission. Three times He prays that this cup be taken from Him. As fully God and fully man, His humanity wrestles with His divinity.
Jesus well knows what lies ahead. He is aware of the suffering He will endure, the passion He will undergo… from the agony in the garden… to the ill treatment and beatings… to death on the cross at Calvary. Perhaps most dreaded to endure will be His separation from the Father as He pays the ultimate, sacrificial price for the sins of mankind.
Yet our Redeemer understands the critical importance of His mission. The entire universe hangs in the balance. He recognizes the ramifications of an aborted mission. For He was there at the beginning when God’s plan of redemption was authored. Mankind would need a Savior. Jesus entered creation at just the exact time to fulfill His destined and prophesied purpose.
The cries of the Son to His Abba Father are heard. A ministering angel is sent to strengthen, renew and embolden Him (Luke 22:43). Soon, Jesus will face courageously His captors. He will humble Himself in obedience to the Father. He will lay down His life willingly and freely (John 10:18). Our Savior will set His face like flint to the path ahead (Isaiah 50:7). Nothing will deter Him.
“Are you not aware that I can call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?” – Matthew 26:53-54
A contingent of soldiers sent by the Jewish leaders storms into the garden to arrest Jesus. This One who will ransom His life for the good of all mankind realizes that His Abba Father could save Him with just a word. Yet all prophecy in Scripture will always be fulfilled. At this crucial hour, our Redeemer exhibits the utmost trust in His Father. He allows God to work His sovereign will.
“Because you are God’s children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into us to call out, “Abba! Father!” – Galatians 4:6
God is our Father. We are privileged to be able to cry to Him when times are beyond our control. In desperation, we call to our Abba Father. We dearly want Him to take away our fear, our dread, our distress. To step in mightily and change our dire circumstances. Like Jesus, we find our old nature wrestling with our new nature… the natural battling the spiritual.
We realize that our Abba Father could in a moment call off our suffering, our pain, our fear… smooth out the obstacles in our path… and make right the wrongs and injustices in our lives. Yet God rules all with perfect and infallible wisdom. We must yield to His sovereignty, His preeminence, His providence, His authority… just as Jesus did.
“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’.” – Romans 8:15
Our Abba Father hears our cries. For He has blessed us with His Spirit of adoption into His kingdom family. He steps in and touches our lives with His loving presence. Our Heavenly Father calms our fears, eases our hurts. He places in us His hope. He strengthens our faith. He assures us of His guidance. We find ourselves renewed, refreshed, encouraged.
Perhaps nothing is different. Yet, like Jesus, we are changed in our Father’s compassionate presence. We remember that we are never alone. Our spirits are changed. The perception of our circumstances is changed. We are touched, impacted, emboldened for the path ahead. Our thoughts and emotions refined, reshaped, redirected. We trust our Abba Father to work all according to His divine purpose and our ultimate good. We allow His sovereign will to manifest in our lives.
