Not Mine But Thine

When we are raising our children we want the best for them. We want them to grow up as strong, healthy, mature, and responsible adults. We do our best to teach them everything that is good, and most important what is the true way according to God’s word and hope that one day it makes a difference.

There are also those times when they want to do things that are not beneficial to them and we must say “no” to them. At those moments it becomes our will over their will, and they do not always see it as a good thing, but in time we know it will be for their own good.

For us, as God’s children, it can be the same way. He knows what is best for us even when we can’t always see it clearly. We want our own way because we think we know what is best and we can have a difficult time conforming to His will.

We like to be in control, to know what is coming at all times and we even tell ourselves that we have everything under control. When that happens though eventually, the “bottom seems to fall out”, and what started out as everything appearing in control and good has ended up in disaster.

Even when our children have to learn “The hard way” we as adults also go through the same thing. Society is not much help in this area either for they encourage “Self-reliance” which often leads to not asking anyone for help including God. We feel the need to be self-reliant because if we can’t make things work within ourselves for some reason we feel it shows our “inadequacy.” Yet following this thinking leads us to at some point experience burnout and possibly even major mistakes. We then find ourselves becoming mentally drained and physically tired.

In Luke 22: 42 we read about Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. He was there praying on the night before He was to be crucified and He prayed “Father if Thou is willing remove this cup from me; yet not My will, but Thine be done.”

Jesus knew that He had to die on that cross for mankind, but I’m sure He dreaded it. You must remember even though He was the Son of God, He was still flesh and blood, and being crucified was an extremely long and painful death. He also knew it was going to be beyond painful, but He prayed “Your will be done” and then followed through with God’s will, and because of that choice we have eternal life and forgiveness of all our sins.

Our prayer should always be the same that Jesus prayed; “Yet not My will, but Thine be done.” Too many times we pray for our will to be done when the focus of our lives should always be God’s will above anything else, for what do we really have to give up compared to Jesus? The answer is nothing that matters.

Our time, wants, and desires should always conform to Him and His will and not ours. We need to continually make sure our lives reflect the will of God and not our own will. We are to remember that it’s just not about doing whatever “purpose” God has for us, but also about our daily routines- our daily habits. It’s about seeking and worshipping God daily and letting the love of God shine through us toward others.

We need to remember that we cannot and were not meant to live our lives with “us” as the focus, for when that is the case that is when the bottom seems to fall out eventually. Even Jesus’ life was not about “Himself”, but it was about “serving” others and doing the will of His Father and our lives should and need to be the same way every minute of every day. Think for a minute if Jesus had not followed God's will, we would be “eternally lost.” In the same way if we do not follow the will of God for our own lives we will never have the meaning and purpose that our lives were created and meant to have. We will not be able to affect those around us for Christ.

So, start now living your life according to His will and not your own!!