I was in prayer taking communion while talking with the Lord about some, yet, unanswered prayers. As I took the elements I heard His most gentle voice say, “Drink the cup, Shelly.”

My tearful response was, “Yes, Lord.”

Several passages of scripture immediately came flooding to my mind.

And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt. (Mark 14:36)

When you go look deeper into the word, “cup” you’ll find the word “portion” or “lot.” In other words, take this portion from me. This part of the plan for my life. Isn’t there another way?

How often have we prayed these very words in personal crises?

We know this cup was a cup of suffering. Christ was about to take His place on the cross. The outcome of a betrayal, a selling out of His life, but still part of the ultimate plan of salvation for all of humanity. He even rebuked Peter here:

John 18:11 – So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?”

The other passage that came to me was while James and John were asking Jesus to put them on the right and left of Him in Glory.

Mar 10:38 – But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

Mar 10:39 – They said to Him, “We are able.” So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized;

Mar 14:23 – Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

We are often oblivious to our agreement to follow Jesus and what it might mean for us. To us, each is a cup of suffering at some moment in time. None will escape it.

Like these two disciples, we long to ask Christ for whatever we want but are unwilling to drink His cup fully submerging ourselves in the sacrificial life with Christ that for these disciples cost their very lives on earth.

The gospel is costly friends. This baptism Jesus was talking about here wasn’t of water. It was a blood baptism. A baptism of suffering that led to a Heavenly victory.

You, and I, will face this too as we follow Jesus. It is a walk of constant deaths.

You had best go deeper with Christ than surface preaching and good times. This is a serious business. Life and death are at stake, spiritually, and for some, literally.

The abundant life we love to claim was offered to the disciples as well according to the word of God.

Yet, this abundant life to which they testified got them stoned, imprisoned, and beheaded.

I don’t share this to steal your joy but to offer you the true gospel of Jesus Christ whereby “drinking the cup” is surrendering to the will of the Father and the cost of taking Christ to a lost humanity.

If you are bound and determined to believe only in earthly abundance and rose-paved journeys, you will not make it to the end as this world turns darker.

You need to decide now if you are truly willing to “drink the cup.”