WHOSE WILL DO YOU FOLLOW?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day. For My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

John 6:38-40

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever recited the Lord’s Prayer?

If so, you may remembering saying these words, words given to us by Jesus Himself:

“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Believers have been reciting this prayer for the ages, so much so that maybe they have grown numb to the very words they speak. For we say these words so very easily, they roll right off of our tongues but do we stop to really consider what we are really saying? We pray for the Lord’s will to be done but do we really want it to be in our lives?

And this leads to an additional question, the one at the center of today’s devotion:

Whose will do you follow: your own or God’s?

Indeed, we find a war raging within us, the flesh against the Spirit.

On one side, the ways of the world dig at our very minds and hearts, hoping to drag us into the pit of iniquity, to encourage us to give into our own desires and temptations, to implore us to take control.

On the other side, we have the Spirit trying to guide us in the direction of God’s will which runs counter to the world’s ways. It’s a will that drives us to be self sacrificing rather than self serving, submissive instead of aggressive, surrendering vice dictating.

Again, what will is the most dominant in your life: your will or the will of God the Father?

Thank goodness Jesus chose the latter, to be perfectly obedient to the will of His Father. For had He not, perhaps no one would have ended up saved. Perhaps, all mankind would have been left to perish, all because Jesus chose to do His own thing.

Let that soak in for a minute and then give thanks that Jesus didn’t do that. Look back at His ministry and it wasn’t ever defined by what He did for Himself but rather what He could do for others.

Why?

Because Jesus never swayed from following His Father’s will. His whole mission was built upon that very fundamental. It’s why He came to earth and existed in the first place. We know because He tells us as much in today’s scripture passage as we continue to look at John 6:

“For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day. For My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”  John 6:38-40

Through the words of our Savior, we see clearly that Jesus, the Son, was always the key component of God’s supreme plan for salvation. He had come to carry out the will of God and what was that will?

“…this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day.”

This was God’s will for Jesus but He had a will for all those who would place their faith and hope in Jesus as well.

“My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life.”

God the Father wants His people to be saved through His Son and everyone who believes in Jesus as Savior will have eternal life, raised up by Jesus at the last day.

God’s word from 1 Thessalonians affirms all this and paints the scene of how God’s will is going to be carried out when Jesus returns:

For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

It’s a beautiful picture of the last chapter in every Christian’s worldly life story, a chapter that is always a happy ending. All Christians, dead and alive, raised up by Jesus and carried away into eternal life while the earth and heavens as we know it become extinct along with everyone left behind. And it all happened because believers allowed God’s will to be done.

You see, we have a choice and there are only two. We can choose to commit to God’s will in our life and walk on His path of righteousness or we can choose to do what we want to do, to devote our lives to our own will, an option that leads to destruction. We know this because again, Jesus said so:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

When we follow our own will, we run counter to what God wants. We walk our own path, a different path, a wide path that leads to our own destruction (Matthew 7:13).

Conversely, when we walk the path of God’s will, it leads us to Jesus who will raise us up. Not one person who comes to Jesus and believes will be lost. Not one Christian, dead or alive, will be forsaken, forgotten, and left behind because it is the will of God that Jesus would never lose anyone God brings to Him.

And what a blessed assurance that is.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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