Day 39 - 40 Days in The Word: Surrendered Love

In the stillness of the Garden of Gethsemane, we are invited into a sacred and weighty moment. Jesus, fully aware of the unimaginable cost before Him, falls on His face in anguish. He knows the physical suffering that awaits—but even more, He knows He will bear the weight of our sin and experience a separation from the Father unlike anything we can comprehend. And yet, He stays. He surrenders. He chooses the cross—because of His deep and abiding love for us. But this moment also reveals the heart of the Father. In His great love for us, the Father did not withhold His Son, but allowed Him to walk this painful path so that we could be brought near. What love… that the Son would willingly give Himself, and the Father would willingly give His Son, so that we might never be separated from Him. As we listen to Jesus’ prayer, we are drawn into a deeper awe of this love and invited to trust the Father in our own moments of surrender.

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. -  Matthew 26:39

Imagine what our Lord went though at this moment in time.  He was both man and God.  Being God, He knew exactly all of the events that would take place.  He knew the suffering He would have to endure both physically, and probably worst of all, spiritually when He was separated from His triune relationship with God the Father when He bore all of our sins on Himself and God had to look away.   There is nothing worse in the entire universe than separation from God.   Because our God is holy, He cannot look on sin.  How amazing that God provided a way for us to be right with Him and considered righteous so that we wouldn’t be separated from Him. That way cost Him great suffering, though – let us never forget that!

How does recognizing both the Father’s willingness to give His Son and Jesus’ willingness to surrender His life for you deepen your understanding of God’s love—and how might that shape your trust and obedience today?

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your redemptive plan for mankind!  You knew before the beginning of the world what would happen with fallen man and what You would need to do to offer a way back to You.  That plan cost You greatly and yet it gained for us who received the gift everything! We can never thank You enough!  We want You to know how thankful we are to You our amazing, loving, merciful God.  We ask that You would deepen our faith in our Lord Jesus and that we would desire nothing as much as our relationship with Him. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.