Read : Mark 14: 32-38
Take this cup away from Me;nevertheless; not what I will, but what You will. - Mark 14:36
Many sincere believers in the Lord Jesus claim that sickness is never God's will for the Christian. Therefore we should pray for the restoration with a tenacity that refuses to take no for an answer. According to them, physical infirmity continues because we have become content with it. What we need, they say, is more faith and a rejection of the qualifier, "If it be Your will".
But consider Jesus' plea in the Garden of Gethsemane. Although His prayer focused on the awful ordeal He faced, not sickness, God's response to it clearly shows that His glory is not always best served through instant, miraculous deliverance. In His humanity, the Lord Jesus drew back from the awful prospect of pain and suffering, just as we would from cancer. And like Him, we have a right to ask that "this cup" be taken from us. Yet we must ask, what will glorify God the most? The Norwegian theologian Ole Hallesby said we should pray something like this : "Lord, if it will be Your glory, heal suddenly. If it will glorify You more, heal gradually; if it will glory You even more, may your servant remain sick awhile; and if it will glorify Your name still more, take him to Yourself in heaven" - Dennis De Haan
Take this cup away from Me;nevertheless; not what I will, but what You will. - Mark 14:36
Many sincere believers in the Lord Jesus claim that sickness is never God's will for the Christian. Therefore we should pray for the restoration with a tenacity that refuses to take no for an answer. According to them, physical infirmity continues because we have become content with it. What we need, they say, is more faith and a rejection of the qualifier, "If it be Your will".
But consider Jesus' plea in the Garden of Gethsemane. Although His prayer focused on the awful ordeal He faced, not sickness, God's response to it clearly shows that His glory is not always best served through instant, miraculous deliverance. In His humanity, the Lord Jesus drew back from the awful prospect of pain and suffering, just as we would from cancer. And like Him, we have a right to ask that "this cup" be taken from us. Yet we must ask, what will glorify God the most? The Norwegian theologian Ole Hallesby said we should pray something like this : "Lord, if it will be Your glory, heal suddenly. If it will glorify You more, heal gradually; if it will glory You even more, may your servant remain sick awhile; and if it will glorify Your name still more, take him to Yourself in heaven" - Dennis De Haan
My prayer is a simple one, Father :
Whatever is best for me, do;
In sickness, in health I desire
What brings the most glory to You. - Fasick
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