The Road Less Traveled

March 17, 2016

The Road Less Traveled

“My Father!

If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.

Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

Matthew 26:39b

The Mount of Olives, a mountain approximately 2,600 feet high, about the same as Long John Mountain where I live, faces the Eastern Gates of Jerusalem. The Mount slopes gently down to the Kidron Valley. Mount Moriah, or the Temple Mount, rises on the other side of the valley. Gethsemane is an olive tree grove on the Mount of Olives and Jesus and his disciples went to this olive grove where Jesus prayed.

Jesus said you can pray for anything, and if you really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart, it will be yours (Mark 11:23-24). If there was ever a person who lived that had faith in God, without doubt in his heart, it was Jesus. It was with this faith that Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me” (Mark 11:36).

Jesus did not receive what he asked for. Is there a contradiction between Jesus’ teaching on prayer and his own practice of prayer? No! Implicit with Jesus’ teaching on prayer is how he ended his own prayer; “Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” (v.36).

Just as the evil one tempted Job in the Old Testament and Jesus in the wilderness after his baptism, so also the evil one seeks opportunities to tempt the people of God. No rational person volunteers for such an assignment, which is why Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13). This is why Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, prayed three times for the disciples to be saved from temptation. (Mark 11: 31, 40, 46). When we do face temptation, and seek God’s will, we are assured of God’s help: “Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him” (Luke 22:43).

God has a plan of redemption for the entire world, and God has a particular purpose for every person to help bring into fulfillment His plan. God’s desire is for our life to always flow where we fit into His plan as opposed to fretting over how we can fit God into our plans.

Every church split, every controversy in a church is about control, and control is always about focusing on our will instead of God’s will. This principle applies to our personal lives as well. Breakdowns in marriage and family relationships can always be traced back to a fork in the road. One road is our journey toward self-fulfillment; the other road, the road less traveled, is the road of God’s will, God’s purpose for our lives.

Proverbs 3: 5-6 helps us find the road less traveled.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.