Please, God, don’t make me do this!

Posted by Joy Cook on Oct 7, 2009 in Daily Bread | 1 comment

Jesus has been the model minister for 3 years, but even He would rather not do what God has placed Him on the earth to do. It’s encouraging for me to see that He asks God if He was willing to remove this one thing from his to do list. In reality, this is the act that makes the difference in our ability have a relationship with God through Jesus. Let’s say Jesus decided on His own that He would not do this even though He knew this is what the Father’s will was. Jesus decided that He didn’t feel equipped, He didn’t feel that this was a good idea, that it was too far out of His comfort zone, that the people would not understand, basically that He was smarter than God and He had a better plan for His life than God did. We can’t say for sure that we would still be separated from God, but it would definitely look a little different that is for sure.

These verses remind me of all the times I ask for God to deliver me from what I do not want to do. My goal is often to be exempt from whatever I hear Him asking me to do. Whether it is starting up a conversation with someone I do not know very well with the intent of leading it to spiritual things, or going out of my way to encourage the one person I work with who gets on my nerves the most, or even spending a saturday helping to build a house with habitat for humanity instead of catching up on things around my own house. It seems that I try to convince God why I should not do exactly what His spirit has said that I must.

I think the key is in the last phrase which paraphrased says, “But whatever brings you pleasure, let that be done.” He said God’s will be done.

And then He did the will of God and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil. 2:8)