May 16, 2009
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"When shall I have no will but God's!" (Whitefield)
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
When shall I have no will but God's!
I find all uneasiness arises from having a will of my own.
And therefore I simply desire to will what God willeth.
Oh! when will this once be?
(George Whitefield)Holy God, You alone work in us a desire to will what You will for us. Too often our wills are at odds with Your will for us. We are uneasy when we see how our will continues to oppose Yours. We want to do Your will yet we continue to fight Your will for us. How we continue to grieve Your Spirit. This ought not be. We are Your children. Help us to simply desire to will what You will.
O loving Father, You sent Your Son to rescue us from death and destruction. We are Yours yet how often we continue to say, "Our Father in heaven...my will be done"?
Obedient Son, Your will has always been perfectly in accord with Your Father's will.
Holy Spirit, because You have come to dwell in our hearts by faith. We have the Spirit of the obedient Son in us.
Holy Spirit, send Your fire to burn away all that is not of the Father's will for us. Break up the fallow ground so the incorruptible seed of Christ would grow as You have intended and choke out any remnants of our will that remain. Circumcise our hearts so we might no longer be stiffed -necked before You but bow our knees to Your will. May we be no longer insist on serving ourselves but offer ourselves to sacrifices to You alone. May our wills be melted into Yours so we might pray as Jesus did, "Not my will, but Yours, be done." Burn away our wills, consume our wills so we might desire to do only and always what You will. Melt our wills wholly into Your perfect and holy will. Work this in us for we cannot work in ourselves. Smash our wills so our wills might be wholly Yours.
O God, blessed be Your holy name, we know that Your will for us is sanctification, for holiness, for a life wholly given to doing Your will. You alone have the power to perform what You have promised in us. Keep us kneeling before the cross of Christ and at the empty tomb for it is only there we can receive the power to put off the old self, our own wills, and the power to put on Christ, Your perfect will for us. It is only there we can pray, "Not my will, but Yours, be done."
Come before God prayerfully now. Ask Him to help you to pray, "Not my will, but Yours, be done."
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Comments (3)
My Father,
O, that I might wholly submit my will to Your perfect and holy will. I have that same uneasiness of Whitefield and I thank You for it; that is a gift of Your Spirit. No, I do not always like it, it tears me apart on the inside, but it is a precious reminder and a gift from You that You have redeemed me for so much more. You remind me as Your child that You will not allow me to serve God and mammon. It must be You always and You only. We are to have no other gods but You. We are to have no other will but Yours. You have redeemed me that I might no longer be my own, that I might no longer walk in my own ways and be led away by my own will but to walk in Your ways and to be captivated by Your will and by Your love for me in Christ Jesus.
How my flesh continues to lust and wage war against Your blessed Holy Spirit. I confess that I continue to grieve and quench You. I am helpless to walk in Your will and in Your ways apart from You. I lay myself down before You and ask that You keep and fulfill the new covenant You have promised in Christ's blood, to make me holy and righteous not only as You credit Christ's righteousness to me but as You impart His righteous life to me so I might walk holy and blameless before You.
O, might I be filled with all Your fullness so I might be led only by Your Spirit and no longer manifest the ugly and abominable works of the flesh but the peaceable and beautiful fruits of the Spirit. Might my entire life be to the praise of Your glorious grace.
Might Whitefield's words be not only on my lips but in my heart.
When shall I have no will but God's!
I find all uneasiness arises from having a will of my own.
And therefore I simply desire to will what God willeth.
Oh! when will this once be?
May You continue to convict me and draw me back when I begin to desire my will and not Yours. Holy Spirit, catch me when I begin to stray to my own way, away from my Father's perfect will for me, away from the obedience of Christ who dwells within me. I am the apple of Your eye. Encircle me. Instruct me. Guard me and keep me. Holy Spirit, catch me when I go to the desert wilderness and begin to drink of broken cisterns rather than of Your pure living water.
Work in me the desire to will and to do of all Your good pleasure, O God. You have promised to do this for me. Do it for the honor of Your Holy and most blessed Name. Amen.
Father, I too acknoweledge the "Romans 7" battle that all Christians (all humans, for that matter) struggle with. However, I sometiemes catch myself using that battle as an excuse to deny Romans 12:1-4 (on renewing the mind). We may live in a modern day Laodicea, but we don't have to be of modern day Laodicea. Melt my heart in my stretches of lack of gratitude for what You have done.
In Jesus' Name
Amen
@WLCALUM - Melt my heart in my stretches of lack of gratitude for what You have done. Amen.
If I could really understand what my redemption cost you, loving Father.
If I could really understand what my redemption cost You, obedient Son.
If I could really understand what my redemption cost You, powerful Spirit.
At the cross of Calvary Your infinite love and holiness met my infinite enmity and sinfulness. Your divinity met my depravity. Your perfection met my imperfection. Your power met my impotence.
...May Your Holy Spirit strengthen me to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so I may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Melt my heart with the white-hot fire of Your mighty love, so I shall have no will but Yours.
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