January 14, 2003

We have made it through the holidays and we are in our second week of the New Year. Sure enough we have made new promises to ourselves and God filled with grandeur expectations. Yes, we will to do our devotions more faithfully, diet, exercise, volunteer, and be more faithful in our walk.

At least that is our mind making a deliberate choice to change or reorder our course of action. What is depressing our disappointing in the choice we make by our will is: we spoil our expectations by not carrying out our will to self-discipline or use self-control. We do it year after year and the question I pose within myself is this: why do I continue this pattern?

Jesus made a deliberate choice in that He denied Himself daily to share God’s love with everyone He encountered. Whether it was the woman at the well, the feeding of the multitudes, or the prostitute thrown down at His feet, Jesus always had God’s will before Him.

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane said: “O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.” Matthew 26:42b

All God asks of us is His will to be done in our lives. Think on these questions: Ever bargained with God over a life choice? Ever deliberately chose your own road? When you give your life in His care, are you taking it back before He has had time to use you?

Proverbs tells us so much about choices and the human will.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (1:7) “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.” (3:13) “Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.”(6:5)

How do we begin to conquer our stubborn will so it can be molded and transformed by God’s will? As Proverbs 1:7 tells us we need to have a healthy fear of God so that He will instruct and prompt our will with His wisdom and instruction. We need to be in His Word to gain knowledge with regards to God’s will. Proverbs 3:13 tells us we will have that wonderful peace and happiness when God reveals to us His understanding. To understand God’s working in us we stop fighting self and surrender all. Proverbs 6:5 also reveals how we can escape failure as we submit our will to our Lord. We cannot be trapped by Satan’s trick: “I can do it myself and in my own steam.”

When we seek truth God just pours out His blessings and reveals to us what He would have us to do so He can be glorified. Yes, God is worth of all glory when He reveals His will to us.

God is good to us and He wants to bless us by that old stubborn will being tried by fire. We become pliable and can be bent to his will under His transforming workmanship. Are you like me in that you would rather God’s will be done than your empty cycle of self-change?

Today as you think about your stubborn will, surrender yourself to Jesus in a fresh new way. Commit thyself to Him knowing that His mind covers our minds and we begin to understand His will for our lives. God never fails us; we fail by directing our own lives away from Him.

So whether it’s dieting, devotions, or job related; our Lord wants us to give our all so that His will with regards to sharing Him can be done. We cannot afford this year for one more soul not to be told that Jesus loves them.

This is straight from His Word: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13