My will or His?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 40:1-17

TO CHEW ON: "I delight to do Your will, O my God,

And Your law is within my heart." Psalm 40:8

"I delight to do Your will, O my God" — can I honestly say that? Can you?

In the book Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby describes doing God's will as giving God the right to help Himself to my life. I imagine God doing that — possibly interrupting my well-planned day with a phone call (not from Him, but from some person who needs to talk, or needs a babysitter), an unforeseen emergency, or more serious stuff like illness — my own or someone else's (not that God sends illnesses, but He allows them). How I handle these things helps me see how much delight I actually take in one aspect of God's will — what He brings my way.

Then there's the whole area of choice, of discerning and doing God's will in things as big as what career I choose to as small as what plans I make for the next hour.

Here are some things the Bible teaches about conforming our will to God's will.

1. We gain an inner GPS: Our focus verse today connects a delight to do God's will with inner guidance: "And Your law is within my heart."

2. Prayer is one way we bring it about. Jesus prayed: "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).

3. It proves we are part of God's family: Jesus said, "Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother" (Matthew 12:50).

4. Jesus is our example.
- He said, "I do not seek My own will, but the will of the Father who sent Me" (John 5:30).
- The writer of Hebrews actually quotes part of Psalm 40 as fulfilled in Christ : "Then I said, 'Behold I have come — In the volume of the book it is written of Me — to do Your will O God" (Hebrews 10:7 compare to Psalm 40:7-8).

5. It is the way to become spiritually discerning and wise.
- It gives us discernment about theology and doctrine: "If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority" (John 7:17).
- It also gives us wisdom for daily living: "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God"(Romans 12:2).

6. It is best done whole-heartedly. Ephesians 6:6 talks about "doing the will of of God from the heart."

7. It is practical, impinging on and shaping everyday life. James reminds us that God has the right and sometimes does trump our daily plans: "Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.... Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that" (James 4:13-15).

8. Our compliance with it confirms our reservation in heaven. The Apostle John writes: "And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:17).

Henry Blackaby suggests a will-surrendering prayer to pray when we are faced with confusing choices. I think that it's a prayer we do well to pray every day:

PRAYER: "Lord, whatever I know to be Your will, I will do it. Regardless of the cost and regardless of the adjustment, I commit myself ahead of time to follow Your will. Lord, no matter what that will looks like, I will do it." Experiencing God Workbook, p. 123.

MORE: "I Surrender All" sung by Robin Mark