Getting to God's Will

 

There’s a difference between asking for help, asking for God to bless you, asking God for guidance and asking for God's will to be manifest.
 

Asking for generic help is ok, but it isn’t always predicated on much of a relationship.

Then there’s asking for blessing. Joseph asked Jacob to bless his sons. He understood the power behind the blessing and its importance. Joseph also had a reverence for his dad and they had relationship. The Bible describes their relationship as a close one. Jacob loved his son and favored him and Joseph loved his father back. They had an intimate relationship. So much so in fact that the other 11 sons of  Jacob were jealous.

Asking for guidance is predicated on relationship as well. It also involves trust and hope. If we’re not in relationship with someone to the point of trusting them, we probably aren’t going to ask them for guidance. We usually don’t ask guidance from people we don't know. We are much more inclined to actually follow the advice of someone that we trust.  And there is hope involved in believing that the guidance given will be helpful and that the person we are seeking guidance from has our best interest at heart. All of this is based on relationship that goes deeper than a casual “can you help me?”

Finally, asking for God's will to be done actually goes farther than asking for guidance.
 

When we ask for God's will to be done in our life we are actually giving over our own preference to God's. At the point of asking for God's will to be done, we are going beyond guidance to letting go of control. We are making an active decision to defer our own wishes and inclinations to God's. That is deep trust and hope. That sort of relationship is based on deepest love, even intimacy.

A person doesn’t let go of their free will and defer to the other without intimacy between them. It involves submission and submission doesn’t come easily. The cost of laying down our will is giving up our rights. In western culture, especially at this moment in time, there is huge pressure to hold on to our rights.

God's son was the perfect expression of someone who lived out God's will in his life.

God's son lived out “greater love than this...”

God's son went past asking what could be done, past asking God to bless him, to seeking guidance to doing God's will. Every aspect of Jesus' life was covered in deep love.

Today let's be encouraged to press in to deeper relationship! To get beyond asking for help to doing God's will!

photo credit: www.whynotservehim.com