Not My Will, But Yours

Lord,

I am no longer my own, but Yours.

Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will.

Let me be employed by You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low by You.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing, I freely and heartily yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are mine and I am Yours. 

So be it.

Amen.                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                John Wesley

I found this prayer in a collection of John Wesley's writings on prayer.  What a radical prayer this is.  In our society, where rank and position and wealth are deemed to be indicators of success and influence, the words of this prayer seem extreme and are summed up in the opening sentence:  "I am no longer my own, but Yours."  It is a challenge to each of us as Christians.  Are we willing to say with Christ, "Not my will, but Yours"?  That is essentially what Wesley is saying here: Whatever You want to do with me, Lord, do it. 

I am going to make this my prayer because I believe it is something that God is teaching me at this moment in my life.  What does it mean to be surrendered to God?  What does it mean to be willing to do whatever He asks?  What does it mean to say, “Not my will, but Yours, Lord?”  What is God’s will?  Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians to “[b]e joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thess. 5:16-18, emphasis mine)  When we do these three things, we find ourselves in the center of God’s will.  Am I there yet?  Nope, can’t say that I am, but I’m trying. 

The Christian life is not to be one of complacency.  It is a radical lifestyle.  Wesley knew this.  He knew that a radical God had shown him, and all of humanity, radical grace and love.  That’s what drove him to the fields and hills of England, preaching and teaching.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 20^th century German theologian, warned against “cheap grace,” grace which cost nothing to those receiving it.  If grace cost God everything, why should it cost us nothing? 

I’m not saying that we should all be like the rich young ruler who Jesus told to sell everything, give it to the poor and then follow Him.  I’m saying that we need to ask ourselves, "Am I willing to do whatever Jesus asks of me, even if it means giving up everything that I have to go where He wants me to go and to do what He wants me to do?"  It is not an easy thing to take up our cross, especially daily, but it is what Jesus asks us to do.  He doesn’t demand it; in fact, He says, “If anyone would come after me…” (Luke 9:23, emphasis mine)  Jesus is placing the choice in my hands; what will I say?    

And so I’m going to try to make this prayer of Wesley’s my own prayer:  “I am no longer my own, but Yours.” 

In other words, “…not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42b)

May God Be Glorified

On Monday, a horrific earthquake ripped through the tiny country of Haiti. The capital city of Port-au-Prince is all but destroyed, tens of thousands are dead, relief is rushing in from every corner of the world. Yet through it all, many are asking why. Why does a nation the physical size of Maryland and a population just slightly larger than New York City seem to be on the receiving end of so much tragedy? Earthquakes, hurricanes, political instability all seem to be commonplace in this tiny country. Why?

There are those in the Christian community who claim God is punishing Haiti for selling its soul to the Devil. Hmm. My response to these people is this: if God was punishing the people of Haiti, why then would He have arranged so many mission groups to be there just before and just following this great tragedy? It sounds more to me like He is arranging a great display of His power and mercy, rather than His wrath.

Throughout the Bible, God shows His great mercy. It is not His desire that anyone should perish. Every time that the Israelites turned away from Him to pagan gods, He warned them through the prophets of His wrath and what would happen if they did not repent. If they would repent and return to Him, He would forgive and the manifestation of His wrath would be withheld. Refuse to repent and God's wrath would be felt. So many times the Israelites were warned. This is seen, too, in the New Testament. John the Baptist preached repentance so that people would not live in fear of facing God's judgment seat. My question to those who baldly claim that Haiti is being punished by God is this: if God was wanting to punish/discipline them, where are those who warned Haiti that it was going to happen? In His mercy and grace, God never changes. He consistently tells His people, sometimes decades beforehand, "If you don't repent, this will happen. If you do repent, My wrath will be appeased."

In the gospel of John, chapter 9, Jesus and the disciples come upon a beggar, blind from birth. Upon seeing him, the disciples assume that he is being punished for some sin, whether his parents' or his own. All too often we do the same. We assume that because tragedy strikes, someone is being punished for something. Jesus refutes this thinking with His answer to the disciples' question: "It was not because of his sins or his parents' sins. He was born blind so that the power of God might be seen in him."(Jn 9:3 NLT) I think it would do us good to remember that when we or someone else is going through trials or suffering. Perhaps God is disciplining that person, but we, who don't live inside that person's skin, don't know for certain.  Ours is not to judge, but to extend God's mercy, so that in all tragedy, He may be glorified.

I think this is the message for us in the tragedy of Haiti.  God set it up so that when tragedy struck, there were those in position to extend His hands and feet in that devastated country.  Christian organizations were already in place in Haiti, helping those in that country.  Mission teams arrived there either hours before or just after the earthquake struck.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.  I think that God has arranged for those who can help to be there so that in the midst of devastation, He might be glorified, just as the blind man healed by Jesus in John 9. 

Let us not offer condemnation, but love.  Let us not offer judgment, but mercy.  That is what Jesus called us to do.  Judgment belongs in God's hands alone.  It is because sin is in the world that our world is imperfect, that it suffers so many tragedies.  As Joseph said to his brothers in Genesis, what is meant for evil, God uses for good.  All of life, whether triumphs or tragedies, God uses to His glory, to demonstrate that He alone is God. 

May God be glorified.

Jesus' Healing Ministry

A friend of mine from college, back in December, introduced the idea to his friends on Facebook, of starting with the new year and committing to reading four chapters of the Bible a day. Each day he posts his observations on the four chapters on a blog. Needing a form of accountability for my Bible reading, I joined his group on Facebook and visit his blog daily to read his, and others', observations (and maybe make some of my own).

The gospel we're currently reading is my favorite, the gospel of Luke. Today we read about the beginnings of Jesus' ministry, starting with his visit to the synagogue in Nazareth, where he caused quite a stir with his teaching on a passage of Isaiah. From Nazareth he went to Capernaum, where he healed the mother-in-law of a local fisherman. When I got to verse 41 of Luke 4, I was struck with some thoughts on both that verse and Jesus' teaching in Nazareth. What follows is the post I made on my friend's website.


As posted on www.bibletogether.com:

On Luke 4:14-44

Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ. (Lk. 4:41)

The Bible study group that I lead just recently finished up a study on the gospel of Mark. One thing we noticed over and over was that when Jesus performed a healing or cast out a demon, he gave strict orders for the healed person not to tell others about their healing. Since this came up time and again, we discussed it at length. We finally decided that being known only as a miracle worker would have defeated Jesus’ purpose in coming to earth. Miracles are showy and draw attention to the one performing them, but that was not Jesus’ primary purpose in coming to earth. He wanted the people to listen to what he had to say, to be healed from the more deadly sickness of sin. He wanted them to realize that the deliverance from sin was the greatest miracle of all, and being seen as merely a healer of bodies would have sensationalized his ministry.

I have Isaiah 61:1, 2, the portion of Isaiah from which Jesus quoted in the Nazareth synagogue, highlighted in my Bible. I don’t know why the passage in Luke and the original in Isaiah differ, but if you take a look at verse one of Isaiah 61, you find something interesting between “to preach good news to the poor” and “to proclaim freedom for the captives.” It reads, “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.” I think that this is implied in the Luke passage, but it’s very explicit in Isaiah.

To bind up a wound is to bring about healing, for it is only through the initial binding up that healing can begin. That healing may take time or it may be instantaneous, but one thing is certain. Healing will come. For the brokenhearted, an umbrella under which we all fall, no matter what our lives have been like, it may seem as though healing will never come. As one recently acquainted with heartache and grief, I know what this is like. I am being healed from my brokenheartedness, a healing that is taking time. Yet, if the wound of my heart had not been bound up by Jesus at the time of the wound, then I doubt healing would be taking place. Thanks be to the One who binds up the brokenhearted, who uttered the words, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matt. 5:4)

Praise In The Midst of Suffering

Recently the sound people at my church put together a CD upon which they put special music numbers as done by the church's band or various members of the band. At the end of the CD, they included a couple of Christmas songs. On the last track of the CD, I listened to myself, accompanied by our worship pastor on guitar, sing "What Child Is This?". What struck me as I listened was that I knew exactly when that track had been recorded. I'd only sung that song once at my church: December 24, 2007. Why is the date significant? Because I had said goodbye to my father just three days earlier, when he went to be with the Lord very unexpectedly. My father had been a very significant person in my life. I was his little girl and he was my Superman. We were very close and loved each other very much. So losing him so unexpectedly threatened to tear me to shreds.

As I listened to the song, I realized that I didn't remember much from that week between my father's death and his memorial service. But I do remember insisting that I needed to sing at our church's Christmas Eve service, as the worship pastor and I had planned a few weeks earlier. Listening to the song again, I realized the message of the song I sang. It was the Gospel message, that the baby in the manger would grow up to die for all of us.

Looking back on that time in my life, I realize only one thing kept me from falling completely apart. At one of the lowest times in my life, my Savior stretched out His loving arms and wrapped them around me, holding me close to His heart. Without His strength, I would have fallen into despair, a despair from which I'm not certain I would have emerged, especially on my own.

David was familiar with suffering. Some of it was brought upon him by outside forces; some was of his own making. Yet he knew Who it was who held the universe in in His hand. David trusted in God's goodness and His ultimate sovereignty, that God was ultimately in control. David might not have been able to see what good would come of his suffering, but he understood that God had a plan. It was only this trust in God that could allow David to pen these words: "You have turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever."(Ps 30:11, 12 NIV)

Being able to praise God in the midst of suffering is not easy. It's easier to focus on the problem before us, let it close in around us until we can't see anything but the problem and God seems a distant person, unreachable. The truth is nothing could be further from the truth. Many of us are familiar with the short work, "Footprints," in which a man has a dream about he and Jesus walking along a shore. Looking behind him as the scenes of his life flash across the sky, he noticed that at the darkest times of his life, there is only one set of footprints in the sand. When he questions the Lord about this, wondering where He was in the midst of the man's suffering, Jesus replies, "My child, it was during those times that I carried you." It may seem like we're going through our suffering, our struggles, alone, but it is during those times that Jesus picks us up and holds us close to Him. When His children hurt, He hurts. When Mary and Martha wept over the loss of their brother, so did Jesus. He wept that they hurt, that because sin was in the world they had to suffer.

It is only by God's strength that I made it through the darkest parts of my life. When I felt I was alone, I only had to reach out my hand and realize that I wasn't. He is there, especially in my darkest times. Because I have this knowledge I can say with King David, "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you."(Ps 39:4 NIV)


The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18 NIV