Willing

"We can trust God."

WHEN ARE we going to lay down our will, our opinions, and take up His? One thing I learned in the process of healing is that often, how I feel and what it makes me want to do is wrong. If I’m peeved or angry or frustrated, I have to look past those emotions and seek what He sees. This goes to sadness and depression, to fear and anxiety, even to ego and ambition. Our unruly emotions cloud our vision. We ought to see He knows how we feel, knows why we feel that way, and is not judging us for it. This comforted me, many times. I like the words of Psalm 139, where it says He knows our every unspoken thought before it is formed. I never have to explain “me”. Hebrews 4:12 says He knows our intent.

Knowing He knows, we can then start right where we’re at, shrug off our wayward feelings, and surrender. We like to sing “I Surrender All” while doing our own thing. We like to sing about the authority of Jesus’ name in order to posture.

I’ve said this many times, but the sword of the Spirit, mentioned in Ephesians 6, is the sword OF THE SPIRIT, which is the Word OF GOD. The Word OF GOD is Jesus. We didn’t fashion Him. He fashioned us. His body was foreordained before the foundation of the earth (1 Peter 1:20). In essence, He was made, then we were made in His image, so that He could be born as one of us. This applies to the forming of Israel as well. He promised Abraham, children as many as the stars, and gave him Isaac, so that He could be born a son of Abraham, a son of David, and fulfill their covenant that He put in place.

We can trust God. His plans are perfect. Our impatience is not. Nor our stubbornness. If God knows what He’s doing with our life, if He can form history to His will as He did, and if His Word tells us He is good and generous and abundant and merciful and longsuffering, then our prayer in times of swinging fists should be, “Change me. Make my will to be what I should want to be.” It’s in the NOT WANTING that we balk. But we would drive off the cliff, simply to win, and He is steering us to safety.

This image is drawn for us of Israel in Ezekiel 20. The people of Israel had come to inquire of Hashem, and He replied there was nothing they could ask. His mind was made up. What He’d decided, though, went against their will. In Verse 32, He says, “And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.” They asked to be free of Him, to go worship like the other nations. He said, “This shall not be AT ALL.” What unfolds then is His mercy. For His name’s sake, so that He would never be seen as anger and terror and violence, He would sanctify them, make them holy, and bring them into “the bond of covenant (Verse 37).” What He’d promised Abraham that they would be to Him, they would become. Their willingness would be healed.

This is the promise of Psalm 23:3, to “restore our soul.” The word “soul” includes in its definition the mind, the will, and the emotions. This Is also the promise of 2 Corinthians 10:4-5.

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

Verse 6 even includes discipline (Remedy) and obedience. God is the healing of the soul, and our wrong imaginations, our disobedient thoughts, and the actions we take from them. It doesn’t matter how strong it is. Again, see Israel in Ezekiel 20 and then see them today. They live in continual worship. And that’s how we should be, and willing to feel the pinch of what we think we want when God steers us elsewhere.

Photo by Bernard at Unsplash


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com