Journey with Della

In today’s world it is easier to insist on our own way than to yield to another person’s point of view. No one wants to have the deep desires of their heart bypassed for the sake of another. Day after day, night after night, we each reminisce on what else needs to be done to get what we want out of life. The good life that we each dream about is pursued with all vigor and determination. We make plans, draw up schedules and do what we have to do to stick with them. All in an effort to make our dreams come true.

Anything that has the potential to cause us pain is avoided like a plague as we seek to embrace the “good life” For some people this means trampling others underfoot as long as our selfish plans can come to fulfillment. For others this means not paying as much attention to others as we would otherwise pay to ourselves. Still for others this means paying attention to others just as long as we can still stick with our own plans and actions. For some of us, getting involved in the lives of others is simply in an effort to “be nice” because we were brought up to acknowledge those around us.

Although we all know that none of us is an island and actually live with others each day, in reality we live in separate worlds. Protecting our separate worlds from the influence of others is top on the priority lists of a great majority of people. No wonder God calls us to a life of surrender. Until we let go completely of the control we so badly crave, God cannot be our Lord and if He is not Lord, how can He be Savior? He says in His word countless times that we must give Him a chance to work in our lives and trust that He knows best but how often do we regain the controls and kick Him to the back seat?

If you are like me then sometimes you probably think that you know better. Sometimes you wish He could seek your opinion on some things right? It is said even of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who is Himself God, that “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things He suffered” (Heb. 5:8) No wonder in the heat of the moment in the garden of Gethsemane, so overwhelmed by the thought of what lay ahead of Him, to the extent that he sweat drops of blood, he punctuated the two phrases that constituted His prayer to His father with this word of total surrender – NEVERTHELESS!

I know that we think today that we can manipulate God with our faith and twist His arm to get what we want. Many a preacher have shouted out from the platform that you can get anything you want and be whatever you want. Sadly many are getting deceived by this line of thinking because that is what their itchy ears want to hear. None of us want to hear that we have to go through some things that are not so pleasant. No! we would rather be told a lie over the truth of God’s word. “Believe it and receive it” is emphasized over what really matters “according to His will” And again many have said and continue to say that a good God cannot let bad things happen to His children.

And so we come to God insisting on what we want, what feels good to us and shun all that brings us pain and makes us weak. It has become hard for brethren in the Lord to honestly express the pain they experience for fear of being told that their faith is not strong enough. And so we find, in the house of God, that rather than experience genuine fellowship that is completely free of judgment and condemnation, the walls of self-justification and preservation tower higher and higher. Despite the fact that we come together, there is no freedom to be and feel vulnerable. And if that is truly lacking, how can we truly “be our brother’s keeper?”

Don’t get me wrong. It is good to exercise faith and trust God to give us the desires of our hearts but we must equally realize that what we really need are the desires of God’s heart for us and not ours. The desires of our heart are not always in line with the desires of God’s heart for us through the changing seasons of life. So as long as we make our requests known to God and trust His to grant the desires of our heart, our faith is worthless until is says, like Jesus, “NEVERTHELESS, not my will but yours be done”