God’s
Will, Our Will, and the Will of Others
From a young
age most of us were told “Eat your vegetables.”
Perhaps our parents even said “You are going to eat this and you are
going to like it!” But, our desire was
to have a Twinkie instead; however
the stronger will of our parents prevailed.
When we got our driver’s license at 16, we felt freedom like we had
never known before and perhaps thought, ‘what a waste,’ as we were confident
our car would go much faster than the
limit of 55 or 65 miles-per-hour. When
we went off to college we would have preferred not to deal with early morning
classes, parking restrictions, exams, term papers, cafeteria food, and bone dry
lectures. When we got our first job out
of college we likely wanted an office with a window, a longer lunch period, and
a little less of a workload. When we
reached middle age we probably did not like our doctor telling us to watch our
salt intake, exercise more, and cut back on sugar. Later, when we become elderly, we will resent
being told again to “Eat your vegetables.”
And if we are going to have to eat them, we certainly don’t want them
pureed! Plus, we will be angry that our
kids have forced us to give up driving, and treat us a whole lot like children.
The common thread, at every stage of life is that someone is always seeking to
impose his/her will upon you and me. It
happens from infancy to death.
When you hear a knock at your door, your
defenses go up, because 3 out of 4 times it is a teenager trying to sell their
quota of raffle tickets, the siding and windows people with their very best
deal ever, or the Jehovah’s Witnesses trying to get you to subscribe to their
version of the truth. The reason it
takes us an hour to watch a 40 minute television program is because advertisers
want us to drink Coke, eat at Applebee’s, and drive a new Cadillac
Being influenced by the will of others can
last long after the people, in essence, have no real influence over us at all
(i.e. our high school English teacher, our childhood pastor, a respected
coach). Every mother and father hopes their influence will stick with their
children long after they leave home and get out on their own. Their will and desire for their kids is
strong and compelling and becomes the substance of their greatest hopes and
most earnest prayers. Kids certainly do continue to feel the influence of
concerned parents and other family members as they travel through life. Country singer Chris Young had a hit a few
years ago with a song called “Voices.”
There is a line in the song which says “Walking around with all these
whispers, running ‘round here in my brain.
I just can’t help but hear ‘em; man I can’t avoid it; I hear voices; I
hear voices.”
Within the
body of Christ, we tend to try with all our might to influence people toward
doing the things we believe they need to be doing. Many parents of adult children will for their
son or daughter to get back in church.
Many wives wish their husbands would develop a spiritual side and quit
hunting and fishing every Sunday. Many
husbands will for their wives to quit nagging at them about their hobbies
Where is the
fine line for the church? Some churches
have tried to force the truth of God apart from the work and influence of the
Holy Spirit in a person’s heart and life.
Some have sought to impose their will upon a community by even resorting
to trickery, and in some cases, compromising the Gospel, in order to gain
bigger numbers. Internal motives are often not as pure as the external motives everyone sees.
Even within the various ministries of the church, there is always the
tendency for one person to try and impose their will upon another. ‘You must attend this class . . . it is just
what you need.’ ‘You must come to this
service . . . you will like it.’ Really
what is desired is that people’s motives would
change and that they would then actually desire
to participate; but in the frustrating absence of their willingness, we
fall back on our own attempts at imposition of our will to try and carry the
day.
In Romans 9
we read the Apostle Paul’s personal account of how his own heart broke for his
own countrymen (Israel). He writes “I
tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness
in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my
countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites.” (Rom. 9:1-3) Paul’s will in the matter was so strong and
he agonized so severely that he even says he would become accursed himself if
he could just see his fellow countrymen come to Christ! Perhaps many parents have felt that way about
seeing their own kids come to Christ; but in the end no matter how strongly we
will for certain things to happen, we cannot make them happen. Rather, as
the prophet Jonah proclaimed, under great duress and torment while in the belly
of the great fish, “Salvation is of the Lord.” (Jon. 2:9)
We can, and
should, pray for the things we desire – so long as they are in accordance with
God’s revealed Word; but we ultimately cannot force our will upon another, at
least when it comes to certain things like a personal relationship with Christ. Further, we should be careful to not seek to
gain what we want by trickery and underhanded practices. If God is truly in something He will bless it
greatly; if he is not in something He
will not bless it. People waste a lot to
time, and other resources, trying to do what only God can do. Those things should be given over to the
Lord. We can be instruments, He may
choose to use, but God wants us to remember, it is the Holy Spirit alone that
has the power to change a person’s heart and thereby their whole life. We must realize how utterly powerless we are
and yield our will over to God.
In Christ,
Dr. Allen Raynor, Pastor
