Unshackled Echo ~ April 28, 2018 ~ Bending God To Our Will

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

March 3, 2015, as  Bending God To Our Will.

When we come to Christ, we surrender our will and lives to His care, direction and will. We surrender our will, are considered crucified with Christ and become ruled by Him and His will, guided by the Holy Spirit. We must take care not to flip the coin.

All too often, we let the old nature of self rise up and try to control God. We pray and say that we're asking for God to help, or heal or direct or whatever. But in truth there is no request. We demand that God act. And not only must He act, but He is to do what we want Him to, in the timely manner we feel fits the situation and in the way we want. We want what we want and we want it now, exactly how we ordered it. We look at verses that say things like if you really believe you can ask anything of your Father and it will be given to you out of context and in a material, earthly manner rather than a spiritual one. We act as though faith or our good deeds mean God is obligated in some way to follow our lead and direction and do what we want.

But we've got it backwards. We were bought at a great price, the blood of Jesus shed for us on the cross. We didn't purchase God. He purchased us. He gets to do with us as He wills, not the other way around. That's how surrender works. We surrender unconditionally to Him, and in return He gives us forgiveness, a clean slate, power to walk rightly, freedom from the bondage to self and sin and anything and everything else that we want and or need freedom from. The best part of the deal is that He adopts us as His children and brings us into relationship with Him.

We hear people say, I've accepted Jesus. It would be far more accurate and life changing to realize that at the worst of our worst, at the point of our deepest secret shame, Jesus accepted us. We deny our self, bend our will to His and follow Him. We do not demand our desires and rights, bend His will to ours and take Him down our path. He is God. He is Master. He is Daddy. We are created by Him and for Him, and without Him we have no life, whether we acknowledge that truth or not. We are servant, and we will never know true joy and purpose until we step into the role. We are His children.

When we remember that, we begin to live according to His purpose and plan rather than get frustrated and disappointed that He doesn't seem all that interested in our plan. We find a life worth living rather than one soaked in fear and lit aflame with anger and bitterness. And when we need to do something in service to Him and to get to know Him better, we can trust that if we ask Daddy for that thing to be done, He will do it.

Abba, draw me closer to You today. Help me to live Your will and not mine be done, to really live it from the heart and not just say it. Help me to remember the truth in the paradox that if I will lay down my will and life for You, then I will have a life better than the best of my wildest dreams. Thank You for being Lord. Help me to stay right sized today and not try to bend Your will to mine. In Jesus' name, amen.

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