Key Thought

Today's Prayer

Father in heaven, I want so much to mean the following words. "Not my will, but your will, dear Father, be done." In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context

Jesus and his followers went to a place named Gethsemane. Jesus said to the followers, "Sit here while I pray." Jesus told Peter, James, and John to come with him. Then Jesus began to be very troubled and full of sorrow. Jesus said to Peter, James, and John, "My soul is full of sorrow. My heart is breaking with sadness. Wait here and stay awake." Jesus walked a little more away from them. Then Jesus fell to the ground and prayed. Jesus prayed that, if possible, he would not have this time of suffering. Jesus prayed, "Abba, Father! You can do all things. Let me not have this cup {of suffering}. But do what you want, not what I want." Then Jesus went back to his followers. He found them sleeping. He said to Peter, "Simon, why are you sleeping? You could not stay awake with me for one hour? Stay awake and pray for strength against temptation. Your spirit wants to do what is right. But your body is weak." Again Jesus went away and prayed the same thing. Then Jesus went back to the followers. Again Jesus found them sleeping. Their eyes were very tired. The followers did not know what they should say to Jesus. After Jesus prayed a third time, he went back to his followers. Jesus said to them, "You are still sleeping and resting? That's enough! The time has come for the Son of Man to be given to sinful people. Stand up! We must go. Here comes the man who is giving me to those people."

Related Scripture Readings

Some of you say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to some city. We will stay there a year, do business, and make money." Listen! Think about this: You don't know what will happen tomorrow! Your life is like a fog. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away. So you should say, "If the Lord wants, we will live and do this or that." But now you are proud and you boast. All of this boasting is wrong.

Also, the Spirit helps us. We are very weak, but the Spirit helps us with our weakness. We don't know how to pray like we should. But the Spirit himself speaks to God for us. The Spirit begs God for us. The Spirit speaks to God with deep feelings that words cannot explain. God can see what is in people's hearts. And God knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit speaks to God for his people in the way that God wants.

So brothers and sisters, I beg you to do something. God has shown us great mercy. So offer your lives as a living sacrifice to God. Your offering must be only for God and will be pleasing to him. This offering of yourselves is the spiritual way for you to worship (serve) God. Don't change yourselves to be like the people of this world. But let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide and accept what God wants for you. You will be able to know what things are good and pleasing to God and what things are perfect.