Overwhelmed with sorrow, Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, asking God to take the cup of death away from him (Matthew 26:39).
God did not answer Jesus’ prayer that night. In fact, almost immediately after Jesus was done praying, he was arrested, falsely accused, abandoned by his friends, beaten, and then crucified. Brutal.
God’s own Son knows how painful it is when our earnestly spoken prayers go unanswered
In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was distressed. He asked God for a way out, but none was given.
This summer, a heartfelt prayer of my own went unanswered. I prayed and prayed that God would make a way for me to stay in Canada so I could go to school full time this fall (I am American, so there was a lot of paperwork involved).
I decided that being in Canada was good for me and I badly wanted to stay, so I did everything I could think of to make it possible. My finances were in order and I was registered for all of the classes that I wanted to take—all I needed was the study permit. God and the immigration official who handled my case had other plans, though, and I was given a refusal letter instead.
A week before school started, I was told that I needed to leave Canada immediately. Learning that what I had been praying for was not going to materialize knocked the wind out of me. I dropped my classes, packed my bags, and left the country with my shoulders slumped and my head down. Brutal.
Putting God’s plan ahead of our own desires
Jesus showed us how to face the pain of unanswered prayer by praying, “Yet not as I will, but as you will,” (Matthew 26:39 NIV). Even though it was excruciating, Jesus went along with God’s plan because he had prayed that whatever happened would be what God wanted.
Pairing our petitions to God with a humble desire for the realization of God’s plan is a beautifully designed system, urging us to do our best to align the things that we want the most with the things that God has planned.
In Gethsemane, Jesus went on to do exactly what God had planned and, even though his desperate request for an alternate ending was not met, his prayerful submission to God’s will culminated in a beautiful reconciliation of God to humanity (Matthew 28). Even when they are difficult to swallow, God’s plans are good.
Even though I was not able to stay in Canada, it is misleading of me to say that my prayer went unanswered. Every time I pleaded with God to let me stay, I also told Him that I would try my best to go along with whatever He had planned. I asked Him to help me want what He wants. I left Canada in tears, but I suspect I am going in the direction that God wants me to go.
When Jesus delivered a model prayer for his followers, he purposefully instructed them to pray God’s will be done (Matthew 6:9). And by prayerfully hoping that God’s plan would be carried out, it relieved some of the sting of having my initial prayer go unanswered.
Instead of encouraging us to expect the fulfillment of prayerful wish lists, Jesus calls on us to modify what we want. When we do this, we give God a chance to respond to our prayers in remarkable ways.
This arrangement does not give us everything we want, which can hurt sometimes—especially when we are praying for things that we think are remarkably good. But, in submitting to God’s will, we are rewarded with the opportunity to see the execution of His good plans.
By Ashley Ronnell
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