Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.

We can go from being full of confidence to having zero confidence in one second flat. We humans are amazingly fickle. Our faith is tested. The 14^th chapter of Mark is a clear picture of this.

Even Jesus, when He was living life in the flesh, experienced this dichotomy. Jesus is God and He knew that He came to die for our sins, yet when the time was at hand He cried out to God in in Mark 14:36

And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup way from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” (NIV)

Yes, all things are possible for God and may can trust His will. We must be careful not to be too confident in our “feelings.” In the moment we can be overconfident in ourselves. This too was shown in Mark 14. We all remember the story of Peter being so full of confidence that he would NEVER deny the Christ. Peter said to him, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I never will.” (Mark 14:29, NLT).

With all that was in him Peter had no doubt that he would never deny or turn from Jesus. Of course, Jesus told him before the rooster crowed twice Peter would deny Him three times. Jesus was right.

I find it interesting too that just ten verses earlier in Mark 18-19, Jesus had announced to the disciples that one of them would betray Him. It says EACH, which I assume includes this confident and brash Simon Peter asked, “Am I the one?” (NLT)One minute we have such little self confidence that we do not even trust ourselves and know we are fully capable of betraying Jesus and the next minute we can have no doubt that we never will!

Do you think this shocks God? I doubt it. God made us, He wired us. In the 38^th verse of this 14^th chapter of Mark Jesus says as much. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” (NIV)

It is amazing how quickly we can switch between spirit and flesh. But God knows this too and teaches us to turn to Him. We must remain humble. We need God to help us to walk in the spirit instead of the flesh. In the flesh we will betray Him, but the good news is Abba, our heavenly Father, can do all things.

Let us follow the example of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and go to God in prayer and cry out to Him that His will be done. In whom do you find your confidence?

Today’s Prayer: Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Please help us to trust and do Your will. Guide us with Your Spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, we do pray. Amen.