DOING THE DIFFICULT: SURRENDER TO GOD

April 20, 2013 at 11:22 AM (Christian Living, Doing The Difficult)
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INTRODUCTION

Some people love challenges. They’ll look at something new. Something hard. And they’ll take up the challenge of doing it just to get the satisfaction or thrill of knowing they can do something they’ve never done before. Something hard. Challenging. Exhilirating.

Just so you know, I am not that way at all. I am 1,000,000,000,000% a comfort-zone type of guy. I like doing the doable. That means it’s easy and doesn’t demand a whole lot of  my time, effort, or thinking. When it comes to what’s new, difficult, or challenging, you can generally count me out, folks. I’m not touching it with a ten-foot pole! 

I won’t do the difficult—not unless I’m forced to—because life already has too many difficulties and challenges. I don’t need to  add to them. I don’t need any more trials or challenges!  I’m heading into my golden years and I love to relax, take it easy, and do what I love doing most. Can you guess what that is? It’s studying  the Bible and writing. I just love spending time with the Lord because He talks to me a lot of times—not audibly, but in my spirit—and He tells me lots of really neat stuff. Stuff that I’ve just got to share with you because, in my heart, I know He’s talking to all of us. This blog is a perfect example of the stuff God gives me when I spend time with Him. I love Him. I love what I’m doing. But I dread doing the difficult.

Here’s a question for you. When the Lord asks you to do something difficult…no, strike that. When the Lord tells you to do something difficult, something you really don’t want to do, something you think is impossible, something that’s a Are you out of your mind? I can’t do that! type of thing; what do you do?

Just so you know, you’re not the only one who’s had to do some something really, really hard. You’re not alone. We’ve all been there and done that. The biblical characters weren’t any different from us. In fact, they were exactly like us. Human. I’d like to draw on their life’s experiences and, from beyond the grave, as it were, let them share with us what we’ve got to do when the Lord gives us our Mission I M possible. By God’s grace, we can do what God’s counting on us to do! Here’s how.

SURRENDER TO GOD

Not everything that’s hard to do is hard to do. Huh? Run that by me again. You heard me. Not everything that’s hard to do is hard to do. Sometimes the easiest things, the doable things that we’ve done countless times before, can be the hardest thing to do.

Sickness is a good example. I was in bed for six weeks and when I stood up to go from one room to another, or wash a hand full of plates, I was so tuckered I had to sit down immediately. Being sick, weak, or diseased is a perfect illustration of how the doable things in life can be very difficult to do.

What I’m talking about here, though, is when we have an attitude problem. You ever have a kid who thought that taking out the trash, or cleaning her room, or mowing the lawn, was out-of-this-world impossible for them to do? We can relate, can’t we? Well, like kids sometimes, okay, maybe lots of times, we’re not in the mood. We’re not surrendered or submitted to God. We want what we want and when God tells us otherwise, wow, it’s the hardest thing to obey God.

When God tells us to do something that we really don’t want to do, if we’re His children, we can rest assured that God is eventually gonna have His own way. He has His Ways and Means Committee and He knows exactly what He has to do to get us to change our mind and get us to obey Him. Jonah is a perfect example. If we’re stubborn and hardheaded enough it may take God years to change our mind. Years with a lot of chastisements and convictions. But for those of us who are a little more supple and who don’t enjoy God’s chastening, it doesn’t take a whole lot of time or persuasion for us to change our mind and agree to do things God’s way.

When we’ve got our mind made up and God tells us to do otherwise, the first and smart thing to do is  get alone with God in prayer. You can try and change God’s mind if you like, but it’s not gonna work. Pray instead for a change of your heart and mind. Surrender your will to God’s will. And ask God for the grace, strength, and desire to do His will.

  • I  love the promise of Philippians 2:13. It lets us know that, when we don’t want to do God’s will, or when we think we lack the power or strength to do His will, God does something to us—He changes our mind—so that we become willing to do His will. Here’s how the verse reads, For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.
  • Hebrews 4:16 tells us that we can pray and ask God for grace, mercy, and help whenever we need it. And the really neat thing about it is, we’ll get it! God will give us all the strength we need to do His will. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. I love the word there. Don’t overlook it. You get God’s grace and mercy there. Where? At His Throne. That means in prayer. You’ve done a lot of bellyaching. Have you gone to God and prayed? You get the grace when you pray.

Do you think God’s really being unreasonable with you and asking you to do something you can’t possibly do? I mean no offence, dear friend, but you’re wrong. WHEN GOD TELLS YOU TO DO SOMETHING HE GIVES YOU EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO DO THE JOB: a willing heart, a willing mind, and all the strength you need to get the job done. If you have none of the above, then it’s yours for the asking! This is one prayer God will definitely answer!

Jesus came to earth knowing all along what He had to do. He knew His life would eventually take Him to Calvary. That’s where His life, His work, would end as far as the earthly aspect of His mission was concerned. It would end with a death that was violent, painful, and horrible-beyond-description-or-imagination. It was a death that was truly abhorrent in every way. And feared. When you factor in the spiritual dimension of His death–the weight of the world’s sins on Him, the hellish punishment of everyone’s sins, and the Father abandoning Him for a time (which, to that point in time, the Father had never done before), then you can imagine a little of the dread or apprehension that Calvary was to Jesus.

Moments before He was arrested, Jesus got alone with the Father and prayed, Father, if it’s possible, let this cup pass from Me (Matthew 26:39). He was talking about the cup of suffering that the Father had appointed for Him to drink. There was a part of Jesus in His humanity that didn’t want to go through the suffering. It was a very difficult thing for Him to do and His first inclination was to not do it. I don’t think I’m wrong or blasphemous to say that Jesus didn’t want to do it. Let this cup pass from Me sure makes it look like Jesus wanted out.

But, and here’s the important thing, even though Jesus didn’t want to go through with Calvary, He wanted one thing more than His desire or will and that was He wanted to obey the Father. Obeying God trumped all the thoughts, emotions, and desires that He was feeling at the time. More than wanting out of Calvary, He wanted to obey His Father and He resigned Himself to obeying Him. He surrendered His own will to submit to, and do, His Father’s will. 

Remember. This scene was played out three times (Matthew 26:39-43). Jesus wrestled and pleaded with the Father three times. We’ve done that ourselves. We’ve tried to change God’s mind about something several times before. But we finally gave up and surrendered to His will when we saw God wasn’t budging. Like I said, you can try and change God’s mind if you like. It’s not gonna work.

Remember also that Gethsemane came before Calvary. Before Jesus suffered He surrendered. Submission preceded obedience.

Beloved, SURRENDER AND SUBMISSION COME BEFORE OBEDIENCE. Some of you can’t obey God, some aren’t obeying God, because you haven’t surrendered your will to God.

GOD ISN’T ASKING YOU TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE. EVERYTHING HE ASKS YOU TO DO IS DOABLE. YOU CAN DO IT!

But, like I said at the start, even the easiest or most doable of things become really hard when our attitude stinks. 

So if obeying God is a really, really difficult thing for you to do, chances are you need to surrender your will to God. You have to go to your Gethsemane first and say Not my will, but Thine be done. Brethren, you can do God’s will. But only when you set your will aside and realize that DOING GOD’S WILL IS THE BEST POSSIBLE THING YOU CAN DO.  God bless you and help you do His will.

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ONE BAD DECISION: AN EARTH-SHATTERING DECISION

May 4, 2012 at 12:07 PM (Christian Living, One Bad Decision)
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In the course of a twenty-four hour period we make gobs of decisions. Some of these we make with a serious amount of forethought and prayer. But, if you’re like me, we make many of our decisions spontaneously with little, or no, thought as to the consequences or impact our decisions will have—not only for ourselves, but also for the many others whose lives are intertwined with  ours.

Have you ever thought much about how a single decision can change your life forever? Sometimes a single decision will change us for the better. And sometimes a single decision will change us for the worse.

In these blog posts I’d like to look at the singular decision that some people in the Bible made that changed their lives forever…for the worse. By looking at ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word it’ll give us reason to stop and think about both the long-term and short-term ramifications of the decisions we make. Lots of forethought and prayer, I’m convinced, will save us from the pain and regret of a hastily-made decision for the worse.

AN EARTH-SHATTERING DECISION

Moses had it hard. The desert heat, travels, and deprivations were bad enough. But to make matters intolerably worse, he was constantly having to deal with people who didn’t like his decisions; people who questioned his leadership and his wisdom.

Korah was one such person. He was a rather influential Levite. A big shot as far as Levites went. Anyways, he was disenchanted with Moses’ and Aaron’s leadership. He felt like he needed to be a part of the upper echelon leadership team.  He wanted to be a priest which, by lineage, was not his right or prerogative to pursue. He wanted the laws of priesthood to be changed so that he could become a priest. And if changing the laws meant getting rid of Moses and Aaron, then, by God, that’s what Korah set out to do. So, he gathered 250 of the nation’s most powerful princes and they had themselves a very public showdown with Moses and Aaron.

Numbers 16:1-3 tells the story.  Now Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On, took men:  (2)  And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:  (3)  And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?

As you can imagine, Moses was rather disheartened by this rumbling of revolt. The rights of the priesthood and leadership were not his to make, but God’s. So here’s what God told Moses to tell Korah and his insurrectionists. “In the morning the Lord will show who belongs to him, who is holy, and who it is that he will allow to come near him. Only the person the Lord chooses will be allowed to come near him.  (6)  Korah, you and all your followers must do this tomorrow: Take incense burners,  (7)  and put burning coals and incense in them in the Lord’s presence. Then the Lord will choose the man who is holy. You’ve gone far enough!”  (8)  Moses also said to Korah, “Listen, you Levites!  (9)  Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the community of Israel? The Lord has brought you near himself to do the work for his tent and stand in front of the community to serve them.  (10)  He has brought you and all the other Levites near himself, but now you demand to be priests (Numbers 16:5-10).

The burning of incense was the priests’ prerogative. Only they could do it and no one else, not even a Levite. So here was Korah’s chance to at least taste a little of the priestly rights and prerogatives that he coveted for himself.

Well, morning came and Korah and his insurrectionists showed up at the Tabernacle as instructed. In fact, the whole nation showed up. Moses then took them on a walk and led them to the tents where Korah, Dathan, and Abiram lived. Moses wanted these men to be with their families. Once there, Moses told the people what to do.

Numbers 16:26-30, Move away from the tents of these wicked men. Don’t touch anything that belongs to them, or you’ll be swept away because of all their sins.  (27)  So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing at the entrances to their tents with their wives and children.  (28)  Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord sent me to do all these things and that it wasn’t my idea:  (29)  If these men die like all other people-if they die a natural death-then the Lord hasn’t sent me.  (30)  But if the Lord does something totally new-if the ground opens up, swallows them and everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive to their graves-then you’ll know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.

The scene is emblazoned in my mind. It’s a sad, tragic picture that I cannot erase or forget. Its horrors haunt me. I can see Korah, Dathan, and Abiram at the door of their tents. I can see them gathered with their families. The men have one hand around their loving, beautiful wife; the other, tenderly holding on to the children. A smug look of defiance is on the face of each man, as if to say, Bring it on, Moses. Let’s see what you’ve got. But the women and children look with alarm, eyes enlarged with fear, as the authoritative voice of Moses thunders through the crowd.

Like standing beside the tracks as a train goes whizzing by, the earth begins to rumble. Softly, at first. Then, as the people begin to yell hysterically and run in fear, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram hold their families with both hands, as if to protect and shelter them from a coming calamity. The earth violently shakes and yawns, opening her mouth wide, and swallows the insurrectionists. Entire families, tents, and livestock—everything that belonged to these rebels—were sucked into a black hole. The earth closed her mouth. And the rebels—and everything they owned, the families they loved and held dear—were gone (Numbes 16:31-33).

What a sad, tragic, and dreadful end! It all began with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram moping around one day, wanting to know how they should do about righting a perceived wrong. After some deliberation, a decision was made. Let’s get a bunch of Israel’s most powerful and respected princes and let’s stage a showdown with Moses.

Unbeknownst to them, the decision would be a debacle. It would literally be an earth-shattering decision that would not only kill them, but kill their wives and children also. The insurrectionists saw what they wanted to see: they saw themselves forcing Moses’ hand and forcing him to cede more power to them. But what they didn’t see is what killed them. WHAT THEY WANTED, WHAT THEY COVETED, KILLED THEM. AND THOSE THEY LOVED.

Brethren, think slowly and think twice before you create a scene. Clear your mind and get God’s mind on the matter. YOUR DECISIONS AND ACTIONS AFFECT THE LIVES OF THE ONES YOU LOVE THE MOST. IN SOME WAYS REAL, THEIR LIVES AND WELL-BEING ARE IN YOUR HANDS. If not for yourself, then think of them. And don’t let your foolishness kill them.

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