Bending My Will

I heard a story once about a young boy. His mother told him, “I want you to sit down right now!” He complied saying, “Okay, I’ll sit down. But I’m standing up on the inside”.

It may sound kind of funny, but how many times have we responded to Jesus that same way. Obedience is better than sacrifice. But we don’t want to offer Him a reluctant obedience. It’s almost like telling one child to say to the other, “I’m sorry”, knowing completely that they are not. “I’m sorry” is said with the same vehemence as “You’re dead meat” or “You won this time”.

But what about us? Jeremiah tells us that God has good plans for us, to give us a future and a hope. (Jer. 29:11) But He has a path for us to walk, and decisions we have to make. How often do we find ourselves upset at God for the path He’s got us on? Thankfully, we have Jesus as our example.

Look at Jesus in John 4. He just finished talking to a woman at a well, and His disciples question him about lunch. Look at His response:

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. (John 4:34)

Or here we see what Jesus is going after:

" I can do nothing on My own initiative As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. (John 5:30)

Jesus is actively seeking what His Father’s will is for Him. For Jesus, His Father’s will took him to a cross. But we know that it was for the joy that was set before Him that He endured the cross”. (Heb. 12:2)

Finally, we see this:

"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. (John 6:38)

Doing the Father’s will was not only something Jesus did and enjoyed, not only was it the thing that brought Him sustenance, but He saw doing the Father’s will as His entire reason for being on the earth.

We, too, have a mission. Jesus Himself passed it onto us. We are to disciple nations. But each time His will and our wills clash, we will have to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him, bending our will to His.