Lord, Not My Will! But Your Will Be Done!
Have you ever taken time out to plan a dinner with friends, a couples retreat, or get-away only to witness your plan fall apart due to unforeseen reasons? Or what about that time when you intentionally contemplated how to address a friend or fellow brother or sister in Christ who you felt as if they’d went too far, said too much, or betrayed sacred trust? Lastly, consider this: maybe everything you planned went smoothly and you witnessed God’s presence totally step in to fortify relationships like only He can, culminating in an outpouring of the Holy Spirit revealing just how much God loves us and cares about us developing deeper spiritual connections with one another.
Just this past weekend I was able to celebrate 33 years of marriage to my exceptional wife, Carla. Learning to be intentional about honoring God by honoring my wife has proven to be a vital way for me to witness spiritual outpouring in my life. I sometimes wonder just how much more of a spiritually-mature family of believers we could be if we would utilize our biblical awareness and insights to celebrate when things are flowing and going well or even when we feel as if earthly hardships, church hurts, mental struggles, or physical ailments have us believing we’re flirting with the gates of hell. Directly following Carla’s and my experiencing God reveal His divine presence in our marital commemoration, I had the wonderful opportunity to experience the pains that come with the symptoms and a subsequent diagnoses of streptococcus, (a.k.a., strep). Man, talk about pain….. I wasn’t ready, and oh, how quickly my attitude shifted from gratitude to a concerted effort to focus on the pain and what could immediately be done to alleviate it as soon as possible. While I was smack dab in the middle of struggle, hurt, fear, and pain, I finally chose to slow down and meditate, hum a few gospel favorites, and allow the following scriptures to speak to my soul!
- Psalm 46:10 – “He says, ‘Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations I will be exalted on earth.’”
- 2 Corinthians 12:9 – “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
There are so many more encouraging scriptures that we can meditate upon and utilize to remind us how God desires us to be devoted to a regimen of prayer, scripture reading, and meditation. It seems to me God knew we would need to practice these three fundamental things as a prerequisite to opening our hearts to being led by the Holy Spirit. As always, I’d like to encourage all to “Seek ye first the kingdom of God!”