Context: This prayer arrived very early one blessed Sunday morning. I chose it to share with you today after my priest visited me with home communion yesterday:
Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered (Hebrews 5:8; NLT).
I want your will to be done, not mine (Luke 22:42; NLT).
Like Jesus, I suffer,
Like Jesus, I yield;
Like him, I am wounded,
Like him, I’ll be healed.
Like Jesus, I bear it,
Like Jesus, I cry;
Like him, I submit,
And, like him, I will die.
For he’s my example,
My way, and my shrine;
My Priest and my Saviour,
My bread and my wine.
Like him, I will perish,
Like him, rise again –
So, with Christ as my goal,
I will not live in vain.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58; CSB).
References
Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him (Philippians 3:8-9; NLT).
I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us (Philippians 3:10-14; NLT).
I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church (Colossians 1:24; NLT).
I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14; CSB).