No one can come to Me unless
the Father who sent Me draws him… —John 6:44
{CHAMBERS} “When God begins to draw me to Himself, the problem of my
will comes in immediately. […] Belief is not the result of an intellectual act,
but the result of an act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself. But
will I commit, placing myself completely and absolutely on God, and be willing
to act solely on what He says? If I will, I will find that I am grounded on
reality as certain as God’s throne. […] Belief must come from the
will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a
persuasive or powerful argument. I must deliberately step out, placing my faith
in God and in His truth. And I must place no confidence in my own works, but
only in God. […] I must be willing to ignore and leave my feelings behind. I
must will to believe. But this can never be accomplished without my forceful,
determined effort to separate myself from my old ways of looking at things. I
must surrender myself completely to God.”
{ELGIN} If a person is not a
Christian, they are handicapped.
Meaning, they do not have the ability to hear God, much less obey
God. Their faith is in themselves. They trust only themselves to know what is right
for them to do. Or others just like
them. I find it remarkable how people, this
really becomes obvious with teenagers, look to people in their same plight for
help in knowing what is right. Let’s say
four people are drowning. There is
someone in a boat offering a life preserver, but instead, they look to each
other .. all drowning .. for advice and help.
That does not make any sense does it.
Well, it happens all of the time.
And to the person who is willful … full of their own will … it makes
perfect sense. The surrender of your
will to God is not a one-time event.
Salvation is .. but daily surrender is not. (Mark
8:34) “Then Jesus called the crowd to Him along with His disciples, and He
told them, If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up
his cross (daily) and follow Me.”
Every day you will be tempted
to go your own way. To trust in
yourself. To listen to other people who
are drowning rather than look to God. Every day you must deliberately surrender
to God … pick up your cross. Jesus looked
to the Father and no one else for direction.
His purpose was to do His Father’s will.
A very lofty thing to say .. even want to do .. but it very often does
not play out well in Christians’ lives.
Instead their flesh rules the day.
There is no practical connection between how they live and what they say
they believe and who they are in Christ. They are indistinguishable from the rest of
those drowning with the exception that they may go to church or youth group
once a week. Listen, I am not perfect ..
but you probably already knew that! But
I can see that the issue of the will dominates most Christians. I see it in
my children and their children .. in my friends … in people I go to
church with … in myself. Paul wrote (Romans 12:1,2) “Offer yourself as a living sacrifice” … it is
reasonable given what Jesus has done for us … “don’t be conformed to this world”
…. Its dependence upon its own wisdom and will … “but be transformed” …. With a
change of heart and your way of thinking and doing. The only way that can happen is a surrender
of your will by faith. That is the life
you have been called to … that is the life you said you wanted … that is the
life that will bring fulfillment … and peace.
Who could possible prevent you from experiencing that new life …. You. That’s who.
(Galatians 2:20) You have been crucified with Christ,
nevertheless you live, but not you, Christ lives in you. And the life you now live you live by faith
in the Son who loves you and gave Himself up for you. Keep that in the front of your mind .. every
day .. every second of every day. Else
you stumble and trust someone or something other than our Father in
heaven. His will be done!
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