Entry A - Lectio Divina
Exercise: Hebrews 5:7-8 (NKJV)
Who, in the days
of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement
cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard
because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience
by the things which He suffered.
Everything happens according to the
sovereignty of God and the will of God. God created the heavens and the
universe and causes all things to achieve His mysterious purpose. I am fully
convinced that all human beings, the only entities with the capacity of
freewill, are subject to this divine mechanism; therefore, we ought to seek God
and His will in order to satisfy the Creator as His creation. Jesus, the Son of Man, perfectly exemplified
what it means to fulfill the will of God.
Regardless of bearing the incredible weight of God's wrath towards the
sins of man, He intensely wrestled with His humanity and finally surrendered it
to the will of the Father who sent Him to the earth. His prayer on Mount Gethsemane is rather
remarkable: "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not
My will, but Yours be done" (Luke 22:42).
This beautiful and extremely
delicate prayer of submission is my personal maxim that permeates my prayers.
In addition, I have been a fervent believer of Romans 8:28 which says, "We
know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those
who are called according to His purpose." I recently struggled with
trusting in God's sovereignty and faithfulness, as one of my personal issues
did not pan out according to my desirable plan.
I prayed a lot, especially Jesus' prayer I mentioned previously. When the result was revealed to me, I
immediately sought the peace of God and forced myself to believe that His will
was done despite its unfavorableness. I believe God helped me with breathing
and putting myself together for the next few hours, but later on, I started to
wonder why God did not allow this to happen and what might have happened if my
plan worked out. I was devastated. It
was extremely difficult for me to stop asking these questions and to not feed
my disappointment.
Eventually, I realized that I was
angry with God and bitter towards God. This frustration began to take root in my
heart and destroyed my joy and peace in Christ.
How can I ever get mad at my loving God?
I could not easily accept this reality of my heart. Then, I realized
that I was missing something absolutely significant in my attitude --- Reverence for God. In the given passage, it says God heard
Jesus' prayer because of His godly fear not just because He is the Son of God. God
requires such deep reverence that brings us to submission and obedience to His
will just as Christ feared the Father. This absence of godly fear probably made
my prayer ineffective and ultimately shook my faith intensely during the course
of this hardship.
Father,
please restore godly reverence in me. Help me to understand the convoluted
relationships between love and fear, mercy and justice, and mortality and
eternity. You said, "Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." I
desire to grow mature and wiser by grasping a great sense of reverence for
you. Also, please fill me with the Holy
Spirit so that I may be in perfect union with Christ. Transform my will to Your
will and my prayer to Your prayer. I wholeheartedly want to fulfill your
purpose in me while I am here. Please do not let my selfish desires hinder your
will by any means. I need your help. Have your mercy on me, Oh God.
No comments:
Post a Comment