"Yet I Want YOUR Will, Not Mine."

Pity your foolish child!

(Newman Hall, "Leaves of Healing from the Garden of Grief" 1891)

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"HE went on a little farther and fell face down 

on the  ground, praying: MY FATHER, If it is possible, 

let this cup of suffering be taken away from ME. 

Yet I want YOUR will, not MINE." Matthew 26:39

Throughout HIS life JESUS was the MAN of Sorrows; 

and many of HIS disciples go mourning all their days 

by reason of continued . . .

  illness,

  unkindness,

  loneliness, 

  anxiety,

  successive sorrows,

  stripes repeated before the former wounds are healed--

one woe treading on the heels of another, as with Job. 

Some thorn is always rankling. 

When one rocky crag has been surmounted,

 another has to be scaled.

When one troublous torrent has been waded, 

another and yet another roars across our path.

You may plead that your heavenly FATHER would . . .

  relieve the pain,

  heal the sickness,

  spare the life,

  remove the danger,

  calm the anxiety,

  restore the love,

  restrain the sin,

  abate the anger,

  disperse the cloud,

  calm the storm,

  send the sunshine.

"My FATHER, pity your foolish child, but 

bear with me while I confess that this bitter cup 

depresses my spirit, raises doubts, disturbs my 

faith, irritates my temper, drives me to frivolity, 

hinders prayer and tempts me to seek relief wrongfully. 

I am taught that affliction should make me 

humble and patient, gentle to others, 

weaned from earth, submissive to YOU--

but this cup seems to produce opposite results. 

Oh, let this cup pass from me! 

My soul is bowed down to the dust! 

My tears have been my food day and night! 

O my GOD, my soul is cast down within me; 

all YOUR waves and YOUR billows are gone 

over me. Abba, FATHER let this cup pass from me!

"Behold me, even me; listen to my complaint. 

Behold this cup--

how bitter it is, how full, how 

long I have had to drink it! 

In my ignorance it seems unsuited to my temperament. 

How wearied and faint I am! 

How earnestly I desire to be spared 

the further drinking of it. O my FATHER! 

witness these tears, hear these cries, consider 

my soul's agony! Abba, FATHER! 

if it is possible, let this cup of suffering 

be taken away from me. 

Yet I want YOUR will, not mine."

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