Not My Will but Your Will Be Done

“If you are not living in touch with God, it is easy to blame Him or pass judgment on Him. You must go through the trial before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because by going through the trial you learn to know God better. God is working in us to reach His highest goals until His purpose and our purpose become one.” ~Oswald Chambers

At the end of the day, when I close the computer and stow away the broom, the children are sleeping and my bed beckons me come, I wonder if what I did was enough.

Should I burn the oil in the lamp a little while longer? Should I scrape one more counter top free of dried oatmeal? Should I fold that one last pile of laundry?

Not my will, but Yours be done.

Each day, I wake up, make a to do list, and purpose to be faithful and diligent in my work. That doesn’t mean I never rest, but it does mean that whatever work my hand finds to do, I seek to do it for the glory of Jesus. I seek to say, “It is good.”

I always add more to my list than is possible to accomplish in a day. Most days I go to bed feeling as though I didn’t accomplish a single thing because my eye is privy to all I did not accomplish.

I can see all the undone tasks as though looking through a microscope is my only calling in life.

Not my will, but Your will be done.

At the end of the day, I get to choose. I get to choose between the free gift of grace the Lord offers me or a works-based righteousness I bring on myself.

I want to please God. This is good. But the line which I easily cross is to the side that ends in death – the law and earning my righteousness through good deeds.

I have to learn to be content in the undone, the incomplete, in my weaknesses and short comings.

Because this is where God works.

“God is working in us to reach his highest goals until His purpose and our purpose become one.” ~Oswald Chambers

This is where I want to dwell. In the purposes of the Lord. In the Kingdom of God and not the wisdom of man worshiping the kingdom of self.

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.” ~Luke 24:1-3

The tomb is empty.

Defying all odds. Going against all we know about death and life. In our greatest weakness, Jesus conquers. Jesus defies all laws of nature. Jesus works the miraculous. Death cannot hold Him. The tomb cannot contain him.

He died. He was buried. He is risen!!

“So, brothers we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not commit again to a yoke of slavery.” ~Galatians 4:31-5:1

The undone tasks. The feelings of failure. These are merely symptoms of the root. Symptoms of the sin that nailed Jesus to the cross.

We want to earn our righteousness.

But in Christ, we are set free. In Christ we are no longer slaves to the law of being perfect on our own. We can’t.

So I must retire to bed. I must pull up the covers of righteousness that Jesus gave His life for and rest in the finished work of the Cross. Rest in the hope of the empty tomb.

I have freedom. Freedom to lay down the undone tasks and know that tomorrow will come.

I rest in grace. Because it is only His grace that proves sufficient.

My undone tasks remind me that I am not God. In my flesh I am weak, but Christ is my robe. Christ is my sufficiency.

I must decrease so that He may increase. For His power is made perfect in my weakness.

Not my will, but Your will be done.

What is your biggest challenge at the end of the day? Share in the comments so we can encourage one another!

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