All for Jesus means all…

Christian living is like a train. Facts about God and His will lead me, faith follows those facts and feelings are pulled by faith.

The Holy Spirit is the center of my spirit with intellect, emotions, and volition acting according to that core. This means I do not dump those three things but yield them to the Spirit. Then my actions follow coming out of what the Spirit is telling me rather than from what I want, or feel.  

However the Christian life is described, all parts should be listening to God and doing what He says, willingly, and with emotions and whatever brain power I have. Faith is telling me that the will of God is true, correct and factual in every way.

This mean that “not my will but thine be done” is not about giving up my will but yielding it to God’s will. It also means that…

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. (Proverbs 3:5–7)

…does not mean I give up using my brain, but that I yield my ideas and understanding to the engine that pulls the train. In other words, be aware of the lies about God that get presented to me by the world, the flesh, and that old liar, the devil. Instead, use my will to cooperate with God’s truth.

The people of God are not meant to become empty of will power, to be left poor, flabby, nerveless creatures who have no will, and are brainless and governed by our emotions. We are meant to rely on the will of God rather than our own sinfully misdirected will. My will needs to yield to and be obedient to God’s will.

The same is true for intellect and for those with a high IQ. Giving it over to the Lord is just as challenging as giving up our will or anything else that a person might rely on. This is why God says…

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26–31)

Just as the will must be yielded and determined to seek and obey the will of God, so must everything else, not just my thinking and feelings, but any strengths that I may have. There is no shame in weakness for it makes this obedience a little easier. So also do verses like these:

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:13–18)

Paul gladly boasted in his weakness because the power of Christ was his strength. This is an important truth to learn and follow rather than wanting to be a big shot without Him.

PRAY: Lord Jesus, You are my strength, sometimes surprising me and yet realizing I cannot boast, only in You. Anything good comes from You, and I am so thankful that You persist in teaching me that my own strengths are useless unless they are totally yielded to You.

Exercising my will is not the same as making a choice . . .

Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter—it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

Writers are told to use precise words, to select exactly the best word for what we want to say. With that in mind, I’ve been wondering if there is a difference between exercising my will and making choices, so checked out my Oxford Dictionary. It appears there is a difference!

Oxford says the will is “the faculty by which a person decides on and initiates action, or controls themselves, or deliberately exerts restraint.” This sounds much like a control thing, the part of me that exercises control over what I do or do not do. My will be done!

As for choosing, Oxford says that it is simply “picking out the best of two or more alternatives.” This is not so much about control as it is about examining the options and selecting one of them. God gives me a will so I can make choices, yet making choices is determined by a decision about what is the best option, not by whatever my will might want to control.

Today’s devotional reading from God is Enough begins with, “The will is king in our nature, and what the will decides, all else must submit to and follow. If we shall will to believe, turning resolutely away from every suggestion of doubt, we cannot fail to get the victory in the end.”

I agree that God calls people to decide who and what they obey, but choosing is not the same as my will be done.

For instance, Joshua said, “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:14-15).

Joshua presented the people with two options. He told them to decide which one they would serve. Would it be God, or the gods their forefathers worshiped? There were no other options.

The devotional book goes on to say that making the choice to serve God often comes before understanding that it is the best choice. She quotes John 7:17 where Jesus said, “If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.”

However, Jesus is not talking about our doubts being erased by “willing” ourselves to believe. In this passage He is talking to the Jews who doubted the authority of His message. He tells them that if they do the will of God, they will recognize that what He is telling them comes from God, that it is not something He made up. In other words, their decision of my will be done was blinding them to the fact that God was speaking to them through His Son.

For this and other reasons, I’m troubled by the idea of my will being king. As I think about this, many verses come to mind that say otherwise. I have to conclude (again) that my will is not supposed to be pulling my train.

My will was king in my old nature, and certainly tries to rule even now, but Jesus, who I am supposed to follow, didn’t allow His will to rule His nature. He even said, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

Certainly the will of the Son of God is not like my will. In me, my will, emotions and intellect are all tainted with sinful impairment and Jesus had no sin to taint His nature. Yet He still refused to allow His will to be king. Instead, He subjected every part of Him, will included, to the will of His Father.

Jesus made a choice which was not about “my will.” Instead, His decision was based on His options; He could follow His own will (which, had it been me at Gethsemane, would give in to the pressure of reasoning and emotions about an impeding crucifixion), or He could follow the will of His Father and go to the Cross.

I believe that Jesus made His choice based on faith, not on His will. Faith is believing that God is, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). To Jesus, this option was more worthy than giving to His own will, no matter what that may have been. Again, had it been me, I would have called legions of angels to rescue me, but Jesus choose to obey God and He did it by yielding His will, not exercising it.

Perhaps this devotional book was written in an era when faith was considered a leap in the dark, a step into the unknown. She tries to counter this with, “This may seem like stepping off of a precipice into an apparently bottomless abyss. But it is safe to step because God is there and will receive us.”

She has got that right. I can drop my will and choose God because He has revealed to me that He is there for me and no matter how black things look, I can depend on Him. On the other hand, exerting my will always gets me into trouble. I cannot depend on me or it. When faced with that option, I can choose God because He has shown me that He is clearly the better choice, and that He is more than enough.