Follow God’s Will
It was never part of my life’s plan to become a pastor or go into ministry. My ambition since early high school was to become a teacher and coach, mainly because I loved sports and competition and because several coaches and teachers had a significant influence on my life.
But all that changed when I gave my life to Christ at 16 years of age. Slowly God began to reveal a new path and a new passion, which involved giving up on my will and embracing God’s.
If I’m honest, I sometimes contemplate what if? What if I didn’t embrace God’s will? Where would I be, and what would I be doing? What if I pursued my own selfish ambition? Would I be happy and content, or would I be dissatisfied? I’ll never know the answer to my what-if questions, but I don’t regret for a second that I embraced God’s will for my life. I am both thankful and humbled by where God has brought me and what God has done in and through my life and ministry.
The truth is, we’re all faced with the spiritual dilemma of choosing God’s will over our own. Perhaps your choice is not as big or noticeable as a change in career aspirations, but every day we are given opportunities to choose God’s will over our own.
Even Jesus faced this dilemma. Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane the night He was betrayed and arrested, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” (Luke 22:42, NLT). In literal agony, as great sweat drops of blood fell from His face, Jesus embraced God’s will.
Therefore, as we approach Easter, a time we primarily focus on the death and resurrection of our Lord, let us also be reminded of how Jesus willingly embraced God’s will. Instead of choosing comfort, Jesus desired to fulfill the Father’s redemptive plan for humanity even though it led to His death. Instead of preserving His earthly status, Jesus lovingly chose to be “pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed… the Lord laid on him the sins of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6, NLT).
Let us, therefore, choose to do what Jesus lovingly did for us—daily embrace God’s will. Sometimes that will be clear and easy; other times, it won’t. But let our heart and desire reflect that of Christ’s – “I want your will to be done, not mine.”