Not My Will

In the garden, Jesus prayed, "Not my will, but yours be done."

Can you say that to God – say it and mean it? Not my will, God, but yours be done…in my life…my family…my job…my time. To truthfully say that to God means you are abandoning your will.

The dreams of your future which you hold so dear, you are willing to abandon them. The way you spend your time, the shows or sports you just have to watch, you are willing to totally abandon. All the stuff you've worked so hard to get, and all the stuff you so badly want, you are willing to abandon.

Can you truthfully say to God, “Not my will, but YOURS be done”? Most of us, if we are honest, know we wouldn't mean it, at least not in every area of our lives. But we are talking about giving our lives to our Creator.

Our lives are already his. Our future – no matter what we have planned – is totally in his hands. I may be dreaming of a vacation or retirement. He may have already decided I won’t be living out the week.

If we stopped worrying about this life, and started focusing on the one to come, we could more easily abandon our will to his. If we stopped focusing our thoughts on all the noise around us, and took time to be still and know He is God, our will would not seem so important. He is God, you know.

He is has been from eternity past. He will be forever in the future. He is greater than any thought we can have of him, and yet we still hold on to our lives as if these few years we have here on Earth are so important.

One day we will stand before him. Everyone in the Bible who did, fell down, terrified at his holiness and their own sinfulness – and these were great prophets and apostles. I promise you, not one of them thought, “Seeing God is really cutting into my plans. I wish he’d hurry and get this over with.”

No, they were in the presence of the Almighty. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else was important. If you are a follower of God, his Holy Spirit lives in you now. You are in his presence. What else matters? Totally abandon your will to him today.