Hebrews 5:7-8 – who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

The agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane proved He struggled with the difficulty of obedience, yet He obeyed perfectly. This answers the question, “How can this glorious, enthroned Jesus know what I am going through down here?” He knows; obedience did not always come easy for Jesus. He asked that the cup be taken away from Him, yet the cup was not taken away. Nevertheless, His prayer was heard because His prayer was not to escape His Father’s will, but to accept it. That prayer was definitely heard. Suffering was used to teach Jesus. If suffering was good enough to teach the Son of God, we must never despise it as a tool of instruction in our life. His entrance into this world as a Man enabled Him to have experiences which He would never have known had He remained in heaven. Each morning the Lord’s ear was open to receive instructions from His Father for that day. He learned obedience experientially as the Son who was always subject to His Father’s will.

Challenge:

The lessons we learn, in this life, are those that are learned by the experiences we face from day to day. As with most things, we learn to get better at a specific task by practicing that task over and over. Many of us have learned that fire is hot by placing our hand near or in the flames rather than simply reading the sign that says “HOT!” We learn love by receiving love from our families and friends. We learn heartache by having our hearts broken. Some lessons we enjoy learning and others we would have rather we had never had to learn. But in the end, these lessons have made us into the people we are today. So, you must be thankful that these lessons are part of your life, because they have ultimately made you stronger and better. I challenge you this week to embrace the lesson that God is trying to teach you, because He wants you to become the best possible version of you. Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered from. You and I will learn obedience in the very same way. Oftentimes, the suffering is simply relinquishing our will for God’s will. Remember, His will is ALWAYS better than our own. So, this week, may His will rule over your will every time. God bless.