Nevertheless

"...nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." 

Matthew 26:39 KJV

"Yet I want your will to be done, not mine."

New Living Translation

"nevertheless, not what I will [not what I desire], but as You will and desire."

AMPC

"Yet what I want is not important, for I only desire to fulfill your plan for me."

The Passion Translation

"But please, not what I want. You, what do you want?"

The Message

Nevertheless. Please take this from me, but nevertheless. Those were the words Jesus prayed to God the Father. Matthew's well known words from chapter 26 come to my mind while pressing in during prayer. "nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." They remind me of another prayer found in Matthew 6:10. "Your kingdom come. Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." 

God's will. Not mine. That's how Jesus lived. Always. Never was he ever about his own way, thought, plan, or desire. Only God's. Above and over all God. Am I like Jesus in this? Am I loving God the Father above and over all? In my heart and life am I seeking God's will and not my own. Am I praying "nevertheless..." about those situations that seem so large and nasty? Am I agonizing in prayer over the sufferings of my life yet humbly ending my prayers with a "nevertheless" as Jesus did? Am I obeying the Word of God and being an imitator of God? Am I? 

Another thought to consider is whether or not I am truly suffering or if the circumstances of my life are simply different than I want them to be. Are my trials really trials, or am I just upset because a situation looks differently than I think it should? Is life truly difficult, or do I make it that way by my personal choices and perspectives? Are the greatest struggles in life legitimate trials and tribulations, or are the situations that feel like trials and tribulations a great struggle because I don't want to go through them? These are the questions that make me pause. These are the thoughts I am deliberately walking through right now. This is the mental sorting involved on the way to "nevertheless."