Whose Will Will Win?
I remember hearing a story of a Chinese man who trained pit bulls to fight and he was quite good at predicting which dog would win each fight. One day someone approached him and asked him how he could tell which dog would win. He replied that the dog he fed feel was the dog that would win. I have seen this principle to be true about our spiritual life. If we feed our spirit, our spirit wins, but if we feed the flesh, then our flesh wins.
The time we spend nourishing our spiritual life or living for our own pleasures and desires, depends on where we place most value. If one considers his own life to be number 1, more value will then be placed on self-interests than on anything else. If God is in first place, then other interests, people and activities, fall in behind what God desires. Jesus said that, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mat. 6.21) Your heart follows what you treasure. How you use your time, what you talk about with others, the activities you get excited about, all reveal what is most important to you.
I have heard it say that if you really want to do something, you will find a way. If you don’t, you will find an excuse. When someone “falls in love”, it seems they have all the time in the world for that very, special person. Before passion set their hearts on fire, they had no time for anything else. In fact, they complained continually about the difficulties of their life and were continually exhausted. Finding their treasure gave them a motivation and a new surge of energy.
God is after our hearts. He wants us to desire Him and to be in love with Him. Anything else is mere religion. God hates excuses, because He knows they are just hard-core lies. His wrath burned against those “friends” who did not respond to His invitation to the banquet He had prepared. They gave such dumb excuses. The fact is they just didn’t want to go to the banquet. Jesus called some people to follow Him, but they responded in this way: “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Another gave the excuse that he had to go say goodbye to his family first. Such lame excuses!
Where is your heart? Jesus’ heart is eternally linked with the Father. This is why He could pray: “Not my will but Yours be done.” He wasn’t going to say something different than what the Father said, nor was He going to do any-thing other than the Father’s will. He wasn’t constantly checking the weather. He wasn’t influenced by who was with Him or not, nor did it really matter what conditions He had to face. His love for Father God controlled His decisions. There were no inner struggles. There was no procrastination or excuses. His treasure was in Heaven. His heart was given completely to please the One He loved. Jesus feasted at the Father’s banquet that was prepared for Him. The Father’s Will was His Will and thus He won at each temptation and triumphed over death.
Whose will will win in your life? Yours or God’s?
Scriptures to meditate on:
Mat. 6.10, 21, 33; Luke 9.57-62; 14.15-24; 18.18-30