I look back at my life and think of the numerous times I have
made plans and expected God to go along with them and bless all I wanted to
do. Most times, I never even thought of
asking God what His will was for me.
Therefore, I used my own wisdom and strength to come up with a strategy
to carry out my own wishes. Unfortunately, it didn’t work that well for me. Yet, all these failures were quite
fortuitous as they led me to seek God more and draw closer to Him. Now, I know that I must commit all my ways to
God, and also trust Him, and He will do it (Psalm 37:5). I may have had my plans, but God directed my
path.
In our self-will, we try to reason out God’s ways and
thoughts, which are so much higher than ours. How can we truly comprehend a Father
who sends a Son, who relinquishes His glory to come down to a corrupt world in
order to save those who rebelled against Him, while they were being besieged by
sin? It is incomprehensible, yet we try
to box in this mysterious God in our limited minds. Impetuously, we put ourselves in the position of
His consultants, giving Him directives on how He should grant our wishes, like
a genie in a bottle, rather than the Lord of our lives.
Committing our way to the Lord may be uncomfortable,
inconvenient, tedious or even terrifying.
The Gospel of Matthew records the mother of James and John requesting that Jesus would have her sons sit on the right and left sides of Him in His kingdom. His response was to ask if they were able to
drink of the cup He was about to drink.
They said they were. This was
the same cup that Jesus asked His Father to let pass, if it were His will. But, it wasn’t, and so Jesus drank this cup
of suffering because He was devoted to the Father. Later, James was killed serving the Lord, and
John was put in exile. They both had a
hard road following their Master, but they were committed to this straight and
narrow path, not deviating to the right or to the left.
Throughout the Scriptures we see men and women encountering
a great deal of difficulties as they stayed the course that God had set out for
them. Isaiah went naked and barefooted
for three years; David though anointed king, was on the run and living in caves
for many years; Joseph was thrown in a pit and wrongfully imprisoned; and Mary
had to face the shame and possibly the death penalty being pregnant out of
wedlock as she carried her Savior. There
was also Jeremiah who was beaten and jailed because he was doing God’s
will.
For each time I speak,
I cry aloud;
I proclaim violence and destruction,
Because for me the word of the Lord has resulted
In reproach and derision all day long.
But if I say, “I will not remember Him
Or speak anymore in His name,”
Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
And I am weary of holding it in,
And I cannot endure it. Jeremiah 20:8-9
I proclaim violence and destruction,
Because for me the word of the Lord has resulted
In reproach and derision all day long.
But if I say, “I will not remember Him
Or speak anymore in His name,”
Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
And I am weary of holding it in,
And I cannot endure it. Jeremiah 20:8-9
Jeremiah, no matter how he tried to stop speaking the word of
God, was compelled to, as his heart was for God and His Words burned within
him. He couldn’t hold in God’s Words, he
had to let it out, even though it meant that he would face persecution. The list of suffering saints is lengthy, however,
are we willing to join this roll call of committed servants of God who are afflicted in every way, but
not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed? (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)
Being committed to God’s ways is not just about the
extraordinary, but also about the drudgeries of ordinary life. It means being Christ-like when no one is
looking, knowing the Father has His eyes on us at all times, while giving Him control
of every area of our lives. Even our
mouths are to come under subjection to the Lord.
Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach
you what you are to say.” Exodus 4:12
This applies not only to Moses, who lacked confidence in His
speech, but also to us who might not speak life, but death into our lives and
the lives of those around us. Speech
that is committed to the Lord is wholesome and not a corrupting influence, it
is good for building up and it is right on time to give grace to those who hear
it (Ephesians 4:29). All we have to do
is open our mouths and let the Lord fill it with His words. We also need to have eyes that see what God
wants us to see and ears that hear what He wants us to hear. Actually, our whole bodies are to be living
and holy sacrifices, acceptable to God – this is the true and proper worship,
which He desires (Romans 12:1). Paul
wrote to the Corinthians asking them, “Do
you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit
who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? This question is still appropriate for today’s
Christians. We do as we please with our
bodies, not acknowledging we are the temple of God, which is to be kept holy.
Holiness does not appear to be popular among many Christians
right now. It seems that it is avoided
in many of our pulpits in order not to scare away people from church. However, we can’t try to please man over God,
who tells us to be holy as He is holy.
Duplicitously, we say we are filled with the Holy Spirit, then out of
the same mouth we say that this is the way we are and we can’t change. We negate the power of the Holy Spirit in our
lives through our actions and words as we are merely hearers and not doers of
the Word. Many of us have not come out
of our grave clothes even though Jesus has given us victory over the
grave. We are wrapped up, tied up, and
tangled up in our old way of life. Not
forgetting the things of the past, we cannot move forward into what God has
ahead for us. Wearied with worry, we
lack endurance to press forward to the goal to win the prize of the Heavenly
calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14). God is ready to forgive us, but we won’t
forgive others and even ourselves, therefore, bitterness and resentment keep
their grip on us.
Jesus, after raising Lazarus from the dead, told the people
to unbind him and let him go. However,
sometimes we don’t want the people who God has put around us to help loose us
from sin and the mess in our lives as we fear they will hurt us, and so we feel
that we can’t trust them. We miss the
point that God did not tell us to trust them, but to trust Him as He is in
charge of releasing us from the bondage of our past. They are His hands and feet. God never created us to be alone, we are to lift
the other up when one falls, sharpen each other, and encourage each other in
our walk with Christ. Yes, we may get
hurt, but God heals, hence, we should commit this process to Him, in order that
we will be forever transformed for His glory.
It is time to let go of the
strife, jealousy, anger, selfish
ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder in our lives. We can’t just be about ourselves. We need to reflect Jesus to those around
us. Frequently, we are prideful,
concerned about our reputation before others, rather than our representation of
Christ to others. We are to be
ambassadors of Christ, who was of no repute and who was not a respecter of
persons. His love changed lives as it
touched hardened hearts. Our commitment to His way will ensure that we
too value those who society deems unworthy, seek the unreachable, and love the
unlovable.
