by Melissa Thurston

“Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”—Mark 10:35

Check out Mark 10:35-45 to read about the context of this verse. It’s a great passage about humbling ourselves just like Jesus. But there are other good things we can learn from this passage, such as letting go of our desires. As we can see from the first part of the passage, James and John approach Jesus and tell Him to do what they want to do.

“How rude!” I’ve often thought. Imagine, marching up to Jesus, the Son of God, and telling Him to do whatever it is you want, without any regard for what He wants. The nerve!

I could definitely relate with the other disciples in this passage. When they find out what James and John did, they became indignant (verse 41), which is certainly how I felt. But when I read this verse not too long ago, something suddenly occurred to me. Sadly, I am often more like James and John than the other disciples. How many times do I tell God what I want Him to do without asking Him what He would like? I may be less bossy than James and John, but that doesn’t matter–I still basically tell God to do what I want. But that’s not what God wants. We can ask Him for something, most definitely. The Bible is clear on that in several places, most notably in Matthew 7:7, when Jesus says “Ask and it will be given to you.” But, we need to seek God’s will first and foremost and see what He wants.

Jesus (as always) is the perfect example that we should follow. In the Garden of Gethsemane He asked that God would take away the cup He was about to drink, but He then prayed that God’s will would be done (Matthew 26:39). That’s exactly what we should do. We need to ask for His will to be done, no matter what His will is.

That is not an easy thing to do. It can be a daily struggle, one minute being like Jesus and the next being like James and John. It’s hard to let go of our desires and what we think is best. But when we give up those things and tell God that we are letting Him decide what is best, not only are we obeying Him, but we’re showing God how much we trust Him. It’s a deep and wonderful way of expressing not only our trust, but our love to Him.