PRIME MINISTER LAUDS BOB MARLEY ON HIS BIRTHDAY—02/07/15
Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller marked the 70th anniversary of Bob Marley’s birth by offering a message that emphasized the reggae star’s legacy to Jamaica and the world. Simpson Miller said she joined with all Jamaicans and others around the world in celebrating Marley’s musical talent and his stand for civil rights.
JAMAICAN CHILDREN SUFFER SEXUAL ABUSE—02/08/15
According to the Office of the Children’s Registry, Jamaica’s children are experiencing a high rate of sexual abuse. Data collected between January and March 2014 indicated that 918 cases were reported to the agency during that period. This represents an increase of four percent over the corresponding months of 2013.
GOLDING TESTIFIES IN INVESTIGATION OF MAY 2010 VIOLENCE—02/09/15
Former Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding testified before the fact-finding panel charged with investigating the violence that occurred around attempts to extradite Christopher “Dudus” Coke in May 2010. Golding stated that he was not aware of other officials had spoken with Coke after the United States requested that he be extradited on drug and gun charges in August 2008. Golding said he knew Coke from his parliamentary constituency, but did not communicate with him for some three years before the extradition request.
REID READYTO GIVE UP GOVERNMENT SEAT—02/10/15
Ruel Reid, Jamaican Opposition senator, has said that he would be willing to give up his legislative seat in order to make way for Arthur Williams or Dr. Christopher Tufton in view of a ruling from the Constitutional Court. The court held that Andrew Holness, leader of the Opposition Jamaica labor Party had acted unconstitutionally by using pre-signed resignation letters to remove Tufton and Williams from the Senate.
SENATE APPROVES DECRIMINALIZING MARIJUANA ON MARLEY’S BIRTHDAY—02/11/15
The Jamaican Senate used the anniversary of reggae legend Bob Marley’s birth to give its approval to the decriminalization of marijuana. The bill approved by legislators provides for the decriminalization of the drug for medicinal, religious and scientific purposes. The bill is designed to amend the Dangerous Drugs Act by reducing possession of two ounces or less of the drug for personal use to a ticketable offense.
LABOR DAY WILL BE OBSERVED IN MAY—02/12/15
Jamaica’s Parliaments has decided that Labor Day will be celebrated on May 25. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security has stated that the holiday will fall on a working day and not on a Saturday. According to Camille Bennett-Campbell, the Parliament framed the law to ensure that it will be marked on a working day of the week in honor of a labor uprising in 1938.
U.N. COMMITTEE WANTS LAW TO PREVENT PARENTS SLAPPING CHILDREN—02/13/15
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child is calling on Jamaica to enact legislation that will prohibit corporal punishment of children. The committee considers corporate punishment to be violence against children. The committee made its recommendation in response to concerns about corporal punishment provided by Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), a local rights group.
$51.2 MILLION FOR EPILEPTIC DRUG SUBSIDY—02/13/15
The National Health Fund (NHF) is providing $51.8 million in a drug subsidy for individuals who suffer from epilepsy. The funds apply to the period from April 2014 to January 2015. During this period, over 45,000 claims for assistance were made covering more than 6,000 claimants. The fund sees enrollment totaling about 1,200 people with epilepsy every year. As of January 41, 2015, the total was 13,059 individuals.
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“Not My Will, But Thine, Be Done”
At one time or another we have probably heard it: to pray effectively is to pray in the will of God. If we regard God as our Source of the good and necessary things in life, as well as we should, James tells us there are two reasons we do not have the things we need: “Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:2b-3, KJV). Bible Expositor John Gill states that to ask amiss is to ask “not in the faith of a divine promise; nor with thankfulness for past mercies; nor with submission to the will of God; nor with a right end, to do good to others, and to make use of what might be bestowed, for the honour of God, and the interest of Christ.” To that end some of us end our prayers with the words of Jesus, “Not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42b). But just exactly does that mean?
The life of Jesus while He was on earth was a pattern of wanting to do only what God wanted done. To His disciples He affirmed, “My meat [purpose] is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work” (John 4:32). In other words, His sole purpose was to do the will of God (see also Hebrews 10:5-10), and everything about Him and His life lined up with that purpose. Even when facing death by what was then the most cruel of methods, crucifixion, He yielded Himself to the will of the Father. Fast forward over two thousand years later and there you are in prayer. You have a laundry list of petitions of things you really want and/or need. Do you trust your own judgement or do you trust God that what He wants for you transcends anything that you could ask or imagine for yourself (Ephesians 3:20)? It is not easy to yield our will to that of the Father; just ask Jesus. His Gethsename struggle was of such that “there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:43-44). Yet for those who desire to be in the nucleus of God’s will, is there really any other way to pray? The flesh that seeks to satisfy itself is constantly at war with the Spirit that strives to do the will of God (Galatians 5:17).
Some of God’s finest statesmen of our times have said much on the issue of praying in the will of God. Pastor and author A.W.Tozer puts it this way, “To pray effectively we must want what God wants-that and that only is to pray in the will of God.” Gonville ffrench-Beytagh, late Anglican dean of Johannesburg, reminds us, “You are not drawn to God primarily for your own benefit but for His.” Evangelist R.A.Torrey states, “The chief purpose of prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer.” And here we are thinking it is primarily about us and our needs.
“Not my will, but thine, be done.” Seven important words we need to bear in mind the next time we come to our Lord in prayer. While He can work all things for our good (Romans 8:28-29), it is never is about us. It is and must always be about Him; His will done His way in our lives.
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