We pray, “Thy will be done.”
We live, ‘My will or none”
But God is not deceived.
We can’t make God go our way
Because we won’t do His will.
Again and again, life’s taught
My will is hit and miss
In my ways are no guarantees
We enjoy God’s sure promises
When we live His will
When we walk in His way.
While there are some of us who don’t know what they want, some of us have our minds pretty much made up regarding what we want and what we don’t. I am in between: I’m clear about what I want in some areas while in a couple, I have had to learn some of what I want from experiencing or observing what I don’t want. And it is fun to get what I want except that like every human on planet earth, I’m still not perfect and the consequent shortsightedness of a flawed being living in an unideal world shows that what I want isn’t always the best. As a result, I settled to set God’s ways and will over and above mine.
Most of the time (I wish I can claim all the time,) by choice, I go the way of, “Thy will be done O Lord.” Some other times, I don’t get to that point until failure slaps me back into the line of surrender. Whichever way, I still manage to find myself there for which I am thankful to God of inexhaustible graces. Recently, a subject came up that I had what I want very clear, along with very reasonable justifications to back it up. When it dawned on me that God may be leading another way, I had the options: insist on my way or surrender.
There have been times I have insisted and gone my way but the good gained my way and the good lost not going God’s way are always so incomparable it makes rebellion just not worth that sacrifice. Therefore on this sensitive matter, as I sensed the Holy Spirit nudging me in another direction, I stayed up all night pondering, searching and in the end, I ended up on my knees, “Not my will but Yours be done Abba!”
It is easier to sing, I surrender all,” in Church on Sunday than to live it out there from Monday to Saturday. It is easier to pray, “Thy will be done,” on our knees than to live it on our feet. Yet, every situation presents opportunities each day for us to live our preferences: our way or God’s, His will or mine. We can’t convince God to go our way. Neither does He force us to go His way. At the end of the day, it’s our choice like it was for Christ 2000 years ago in the garden of Gethsemane, to go our way or God’s.
Acknowledging that our knowledge, insight, vision, whatever we choose to call it, is limited is not self-deprecating. It is not just fact. It is pure and simple truth. And that is the advantage of having a relationship with Someone who knows not just better: God knows it all. And He uses His knowledge and foresight to our advantage. He has nothing to gain from misguiding us or depriving us. Interestingly, He cares more for our needs than the wants we consider priority. And until we make that choice to live His will and to walk in His way, we may never fully experience the insurmountable blessing of having God as our intimate companion on this journey called life.
Glory!