There is a moment in the gospels where Jesus prays a prayer most modern Christians would call a failure.
He is in a garden called Gethsemane. It is the night before he dies. He knows what is coming. He goes off to pray, alone, three times, and each time his prayer is essentially the same thing. It is not the confident faith-declaration we have been trained to model our own prayers on.
It is a raw, honest, please-let-this-not-happen kind of prayer.
This week's theme: Prayer.
Today, the specific way Jesus prayed when he was most afraid, and what it teaches us about honest prayer.
Read what Luke tells us.
"He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 'Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.'" - Luke 22:41-42
Notice what Jesus does not do.
He does not pretend he is fine. He does not say "Father, I trust your plan, and I am at peace with what is about to happen." He does not perform composure for the disciples watching, or for the angels, or for us reading it two thousand years later.
He tells God the truth. If there is any way this cup can pass, please take it.
Then, only after the truth is on the table, does he add the second half. Yet not my will, but yours be done.
That order matters.
He did not skip the honesty and go straight to submission. He was honest first. He named what he actually wanted, which was not to die. Then, having named it, he handed the outcome to his Father.
Most of us have been taught to skip the first part. We think the "spiritual" prayer is to leap straight to "your will be done" without ever admitting what our own will was. We are told that naming our real desires is somehow evidence of weak faith.
Jesus disagrees.
The most spiritually mature prayer in all of scripture, prayed by the Son of God himself, is the one where he names what he wants first, before he yields. Honesty comes before submission. Both are required. Neither can be skipped.
If you have been praying only the second half of Gethsemane, only the "your will be done" part, you have not been fully praying. God can handle your honest first-half prayer. He wants to hear it. And you cannot really mean "your will" until you have named "my will" and let him have that too.
Pray both halves this week.
YOUR ONE THING FOR TODAY
In one prayer today, name what you actually want. Not the spiritual version. The real version. Then, after that, and only after that, add "yet not my will, but yours."
A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Father, teach me to pray both halves of Gethsemane. Help me be honest about what I want before I hand it over. Meet me in the honesty. Amen.
WATCH THIS
If today's post landed, this video walks through one specific short prayer that has become part of my daily rhythm, in the spirit of the simple, honest prayers Jesus modelled.
OVER TO YOU
What have you been wanting to name to God but skipping over? A word or a line. Every reply held with care.
P.S. Locked In With God is my eBook for anyone learning to stay with God through the hard seasons, the way Jesus did in Gethsemane. It is in the store. Newsletter readers get 10% off the whole order with code NEWSLETTER at checkout.
God bless you, my friend.
The LowKey Christian
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