God
made sure to provide us with many Biblical examples to follow. Jesus came down from heaven, not to do His own will
or to seek His own glory, but to follow only our Father’s will for His life (John 6:38;
8:50). He did not do or speak anything
by His own effort, but only as our Father instructed Him (John
8:28-29). He willingly laid down His
human will and lived to please our Father. God wants us to adopt the same mindset as Christ
Jesus (Philippians 2:1-11). He laid down His glory and came to serve at our Father’s
pleasure, even to the point of death (Philippians 2:5-8).
Another
instance is our dear brother, Job. He
lost every one and every thing that was dear to his heart. He ended up in an
ash heap with boils and ill health, but he would not curse the Lord and die (Job 2:9). In His graciousness, God gave Job abundantly more
than he ever had before his trials began (Job 42:10). Just like Jesus, Job reaped the blessings of God in return
for submission to God’s will, and so will we (Philippians 2:9).
Stephen,
a man full of God’s grace, wisdom and power performed many signs and wonders
during his service to God (Acts 6:8,10). During his trial, his face shone like an angel with
the peace of God (Acts 6:15). Even while threatened with death, Stephen preached his
finest sermon. As he kept his focus on Jesus, the heavens opened up before Him
and He viewed the scene in Heaven as he slipped from his earthly existence into
eternity (Acts 7:1-60).
Paul
lived his life dedicated to the Jewish religion, rising to the top with his
self-efforts. He persecuted the followers of Christ with a vengeance. Then, he
encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and formed a union that
gave him courage to face future deprivation and persecution with joy (Acts 9:4;
Philippians 4:4).
He surrendered everything to gain a deeper walk with Christ (Philippians
3:8). James
must have had this same experience, because He advised us to count it all joy
when we experience negative circumstances in our life (James 1:2).
Life
is not about you! It is not about me either. Life is all about the will of our
compassionate Father for each of us. In our stubborn, self-centered efforts to
live our life, God allows us to go our own way, waiting patiently for us to
exhaust our resources and fail in devastation. This is when, like Stephen, we
finally look up from our pit of doom into His glorious face. Once we completely
surrender to Christ in us, God shows us great and mighty things (Jeremiah
33:3) and fills
us with His peace and joy (Romans 15:13).
We
are all called us to assume the position of a helpless child, living in the
nurture and with the direction of our benevolent Father (Matthew
18:3). Pursuing our earthly dreams and goals will never
bring us true happiness. A surrendered life brings contentment to the inner
core of our soul and to the depths of our heart, regardless of the
circumstances in our life (1 Timothy 6:6,
8; 2 Corinthians 4:17). As we
follow the will of God moment by moment throughout our day, He fills us with
His peace and His Spirit until we glow with the face of an angel like Stephen,
we enjoy material blessings like Job, we have an effective ministry like Paul
and we live in the anointing of Jesus.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, You lived a
surrendered life to the will of our Father, giving us Your example to follow.
Help us to shed the burdens of this world and to walk in Your freedom now and
in eternity. Use us as instruments to shed Your peace abroad in
the earth as we share Your gospel with those humble enough to receive You into
their hearts.
Thought for the Day:
Constant denial of God’s
call on our life will harden our heart and cause us to walk away from His
Truth.Thank you, Michael D. Perkins, for the use of your photo.
