Self-will

We all have a “will” that chooses one way or another way.  The will is “the faculty of conscious and particularly of deliberate action. . . . power of choosing one’s own actions. . . . the act or process of using our asserting one’s choice; volition.”[1]  Moses called on the Israelites, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

Years later, Joshua also challenged Israel, “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).  We must choose God or reject Him; we must choose to obey Him or disobey Him; we must choose to go our own way or the way of the Lord.

Our will makes choices in life and those choices reflect who we are in Christ.  They will determine our eternal destiny.  We must always ask: Will I follow my own will or will I follow God’s will?  When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39).

Although He would have preferred avoiding the cross, He was willing to set His own will aside in order to follow the Father’s will.  A short while later, he came back to his place of prayer, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done” (v. 42).  The attitude of Christ should be our own attitude. Whatever the issue, we need to seek God’s will.  Earlier Jesus had expressed the same attitude: “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38).

In our relationship with other people, are we willing to sacrifice our own will, our own plans, and our own desires in order to bless and please the other person?  Likewise, when we are faced with what we would prefer to do and what we know God would want us to do, what do we choose?  Are we self-willed?

 

[1] Random House Webster’s College Dictionary.