Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!" 

Have you ever wondered what would have happened if God had granted Jesus' request to not go through with this? Well, it would be so much different. Jesus didn't want to be crucified. He didn't want to go through with it and suffer that much. I mean, I think all of us are like that. We don't want anything bad to happen to us. And we would do the exact same thing if we were in that situation. The thing that separates Jesus is what He does after that. When He says "may your will be done", He gives us a perfect representation of what it means to act inside God's will. He gave everything up so that God's plan could happen. I know I need to work on that. I struggle with giving up even half of me to Him on any day. It's hard to give everything to Him, but no matter what happens, we need to give it all up for God's plan. I don't know what I will be doing next year or even tomorrow, but if I give it to God, it doesn't matter because He will make it happen.

So the next time you are thinking about throwing the towel in, think of Jesus and how He was able to submit to God's plan even though He knew what would happen. Life isn't going to be easy. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that; in fact it says that we will be persecuted, but when we are persecuted, we can be like Jesus, and give it all up to God!