God's Will Be Done

Leviticus 23
Acts 21

Food for Life:

Leviticus 23
God recounts through Moses the reasons for and ways to celebrate holidays instituted as Israelites - set apart, holy people, from the Egyptians and pagan cultures around them. There was balance between confession and celebration - confession for disobedience, celebration for who God is and what He has done. One author asks, 'What do your holidays look like? What traditions have you set forth? What do they signify?" Excellent to think about. Perhaps if your holiday celebrations do not reflect what you truly value, you might start some new traditions and ways to celebrate - ways that are God honoring, filled w/thankful and grateful hearts for Who God is and what He has done!

Acts 21
"The Lord's will be done" (21:14). Powerful words. Jesus said that this is what He came to do, God's will. The believers with Paul tried to persuade him not to go to Jerusalem because of the prophecy that he would be bound. The believers took the prophecy and came to the conclusion that it meant that Paul shouldn't go. Paul did not discount the prophecy, he disagreed with their conclusion based on the prophecy. Finally, they said, OK..."The Lord's will be done."

Have you been there? Realizing the heart ache, pain, conflict, and trouble involved in a decision or action - and then surmising, therefore, that the decision which would entail this trouble, should not be carried out? Paul's example, recognizing the trouble he would encounter - even to his own life being threatened - did not deter him from following through on what he believed the Lord had for him. Even in the face of influential peer pressure! Peers that were God-honoring and who loved Paul!

"The Lord' will be done." The believers with him concluded that they could not deter Paul, so they said, "The Lord's will be done." Sometimes this is said from the heart, like Jesus' in the Garden of Gethsemane - He struggled with His Father, asking that the cup be taken from Him, yet what he wanted most was for the Father's will to be done.

There are times "The Lord's will be done" is said in resignation and defeat...like, "I've tried everything I know how, it isn't working, so, oh well...God's will be done!"

See the difference? The Scripture indicates that the believers, when they saw Paul would not be dissuaded, "gave up"...and said, "The Lord's will be done." We assume that this giving up was not in defeatist resignation because they clearly were not running from persecution themselves in living/dying for Jesus' sake...but God only knows their hearts. God knows our hearts. I confess that I've had times when my, "God's will be done" proclamation and prayer has been more from a feeling and thought of resignation and defeat, than from a heart filled with faith that God's will, will be done and it is best!

And then I ask God to help me. Fill me with the Holy Spirit in a way that will renew and strengthen my faith for the journey. How about you? Have you 'fallen' into this trap? If so, please join me in asking God, "to fill us Lord with Your Spirit freshly and anew; increasing our faith in You...that our hearts can proclaim, "none the less Lord, Your will be done, not my own!"