Praying Like Jesus

Father, if You are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but Yours be done.

Every coin has two sides. The front is called heads and from early Roman times, usually depicts a country's head of state. The back is called tails, a term possibly originating from the British ten pence depicting the raised tail of a heraldic lion.

Like a coin, Christ's prayer in the garden of Gethsemane possesses two sides. In the deepest hours of His life, on the night before He died on a cross, Jesus prayed - Father, if You are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but Yours be done. When Christ says - take this cup; that's the raw honesty of prayer. He reveals His personal desire - this is what I want.

Then Jesus turns the coin, praying not my will. That's the side of abandon. Abandoning ourselves to God begins when we simply say - but what do You want God?

Jesus prayed both sides of prayer; take this cup (what I want God), yet not my will (what do You want God?), pivoting between them.

Two sides of Jesus. Two sides of prayer.