"Not My will, but Thine be done"

In John chapter 6, verses 35 through 40, we read a discourse of Jesus after He had fed 5,000 people with the five loaves and the two fishes. That’s the kind of starting point of the discourse, and He then gives it a spiritual application to Himself:

“Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen Me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me.’” (verses 35-38, NIV)

See again, that one central motivation: "I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me." I think it’s significant that there has to be a setting aside of our own will before we can do the will of God. Jesus continues:

“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all that He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day. For My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (verses 39-40, NIV)

Notice there at the end: "My Father’s will…" Jesus had set aside His own will. Now He states the Father’s will. What beautiful words those are.

I never read that statement, "I am the bread of life", without being moved. Jesus says, "The one who looks to Me and believes in Me shall have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day." Beautiful words, a beautiful offer, made by the One who can feed a hungry world, the One who can give life to a dying world. But what was the price? The price was: "Not doing My will but the will of Him who sent Me."

You see, as long as we’re busy with our own plans, purposes and objectives, we cannot be channels of divine life. This was true even of Jesus. How much more of you and me? If we want the privilege of being God’s bread, broken to feed a hungry world, and God’s life shared with a dying world, then we have to make a renunciation. "Not my will but the will of Him who sent me."