Your Will Be Done

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As you can probably tell from reading these posts…I really like music. Songs have an uncanny ability to tell a story and to reach the heart of the listener. CityAlight is a fairly recent discovery for me, and I’m glad I have discovered them. They have put out some great music that is theologically rich as well as quite well done. This is a new song that has recently been released called “Your Will Be Done.”

I would encourage you to go through this whole song and follow the biblical references and let it refresh your heart. And I want to point something from the second stanza where it says: “How in the Garden he persisted I may never fully know. The fearful weight of true obedience it was held by him alone.” I have been reading a book called "Gentle and Lowly” by Dane Ortlund (I would highly recommend it so far) and he put me on to this quote by C.S. Lewis about Christ resisting temptation:

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”

The incredible weight that Jesus bore in the incarnation - he knew the power of sin. He never gave in. He always fully did the will of the Father. And he knows what temptation is like…better than you or I ever could. We have a phenomenal Savior who can sympathize with our weakness, and he can give help (see Hebrews 4:14-16). He helps those who are in union with him - that is those who by faith and repentance believe. What a tremendous grace and privilege! Praise God.

Your will be done, my God and Father 
As in heaven, so on earth 
My heart is drawn to self-exalting 
Help me seek Your kingdom first 
As Jesus walked, so I shall walk 
Held by Your same unchanging love 
Be still my soul, O lift your voice and pray: 
‘Father, not my will but Yours be done.’ 

How in that Garden he persisted 
I may never fully know 
The fearful weight of true obedience 
It was held by him alone 
What wondrous faith, to bear that cross! 
To bear my sin, what wondrous love! 
My hope was sure, when there my Saviour prayed: 
‘Father, not my will but Yours be done.’ 

When I am lost, when I am broken 
In the night of fear and doubt 
Still I will trust in my good Father 
Yes, to one great King I bow! 
As Jesus rose, so I shall rise 
In ransomed glory at the throne 
My heart restored 
With all your saints I sing: 
‘Father, not my will but Yours be done!’ 

As we go forth, our God and Father 
Lead us daily in the fight 
That all the world might see Your glory 
And Your Name be lifted high 
And in this Name we overcome 
For You shall see us safely home 
Now as your church, we lift our voice and pray:  
‘Father, not my will but Yours be done!’ 

Dear World, We write to you from the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. We are at a loss in so many ways, unsure of what to do, unsure of what to say, and unsur...