Resolve

And He went a little further and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will. (Matt. 26:39, Modern KJV)

This passage makes my heart pound. Jesus, my Savior, is taking His future before God, knowing full well what it will mean, and submitting with everything inside Him.

I wonder what the Father was saying at this moment. Was He silent? Was He saying: "Think of Your bride, Son. Remember, they’re lost and hopeless unless You see this through. You are the Hero the world needs, and we love them. Think of Your bride.”

When Bruce Marchiano portrayed Jesus in the Visual Bible’s Matthew series, he tells the story of why this scene was amazing for him. Jesus goes to pray three times, leaving His disciples, coming back, waking them, going to pray. At first, the rush of emotion that came over Bruce, during the portrayal, was intense. But, by the third time, Bruce explains, something shifted. There, on Bruce’s face as he stands up after praying that third time, when the enemy is upon their group in the garden of Gethsemane, resolve. Bruce calls it “granite resolve” (see “In the Footsteps of Jesus: One Man’s Journey,” Bruce Marchiano, page 174.) He would go to the cross. He would do His Father’s will 100%. No compromise.

I want to be like that. Whatever God directs. Trusting Him with all that follows. Granite resolve to do the will of God.