Pondering Knoll: Lord, let me love Your will

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Lord, let me love Your will

Lord, let me love Your will when life is good. Let me love it in the times of happiness, in the times of carefree days, in the times of peace, in the times where everything is perfect, in the times of uncontrollable glee, and in the times of celebrating with family and friends! Let me always acknowledge You in the best of times, recognizing it is a gift from You to me to enjoy all the fullness of this life You've given me. Let it be when I am on those thrilling mountaintop experiences or in those lovely tranquil valleys that I am drawn closest to You, reveling in the pure elated bliss of simply knowing I am Yours.

Lord, let me love Your will when it brings me to a desert of life. Let me love it in the refining, in the testing, and in the reproving. Let me love it when You give me a way of escape to be able to bear it. While I bear it, Lord, quench my thirst, feed my hunger, fill my needs, and help me set my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith. Let me never forget that I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. And when I have gotten through, Lord, let me love it when I can look back and see the wonderful ways You were working in me, knowing it was meant to only draw me closer to You. Lord, let me love these chances where I can present myself, a worker, humbly surrendered to You.

Lord, let me love Your will when it causes me to wait. Help me love it no matter how much time may pass.

Lord, let me love Your will when it closes the doors on my dreams. Let me love it when life comes to a standstill and I'm left bowed on my knees, in speechlessness, before You in prayer. Let me love Your will when it obliterates my plans, knocks me off the platform I've created for myself, exposes my foolish notion that I thought I was actually the master of my own future, reminds me of my fragile humanity, and refines my once-muddled vision to see You were right in front of me the whole time just asking me to simply follow You. Master, let me keep placing my dreams in Your hands where I know, fully well, You have the power to crush them or mold them to love Your will. Oh, Lord, let me always choose You, so I will always embrace Your will.

Lord, let me love Your will if You give me rags instead of riches. Let me love it when my temporal needs are great and I'm left with no where else to turn but You. Let me love it in my helpless state of incompetency that let's me see Your gracious omnipotent abilities. Let me always be thankful for what You've given me, even the old, the used, the worn out, always reminding me to keep building my treasures in heaven. Oh, Lord, let me love it when my lack of worldly goods shows me the riches I have in You! Let me love this will of Yours, because You've lovingly given it to me to test my faith like nothing else has. Let me love it when my faith in You triumphs, my trust in You is sure, and my overwhelming love for You is uncontainable.

Lord, let me love Your will when it keeps me from the ones I love. Help me love those moments, days, months, or years. Lord, let me never hold back from utterly serving You for fear of losing the ones I love, or for fear of losing my own life. Help me not be afraid of those who can only kill the body, but let me always remember You are my helper, thus, what can man really do to me? Lord, let me love You more than the ones I love.

Lord, let me love Your will when it lowers me to my knees. Let me love it in my humiliation, in my unworthiness, and in my inability. Let me love it when I've been broken, knowing You're making me whole unto Yourself. Let me love it when I am weak and You are strong. Lord, let me love it when my helpless arms are lifted up to You. Let me never forget those sweet moments when You let me know how precious I am to You, and my tears are ones of loving awe that You could first love me.

Lord, let me love Your will no matter what may come to me. Let me always love it as I do now, because I know it is what You've specifically chosen for me, and, most of all, I know it is Your good pleasure that You're working out in me. How easy, then, it is to obey when I see Your will in light of eternity! Just help me always see it in light of eternity. Please, dear God, never allow me to wag my head nor point my finger at You, but let me always remember Your loving-kindness, faithfulness, grace, mercy, and goodness You've always shown toward me and toward those, whose faith I follow, that have gone before me. Lord, let me never forget that all things work together for good, and if for my good, then all things that You will to happen to me is good. Therefore, let me love everything You will to happen to me, even if at the time it seems bad, for it is good, as Father, You are good. Lord, my life is surrendered to You, therefore, I know the choices are not mine to make, so please help me always trust and obey what You choose for me, and not only that, but Lord, let me always love what You choose...that I may dearly know Christ Jesus my Lord more and more.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights"

James 1:17

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

“In order to be a disciple we must deny ourselves - this is to exercise authority over our own spirit. We must take up the cross - this is to submit to Christ’s authority. And we must follow - this is continued obedience. This is the road not to confinement, to bondage, to a stunted or arrested development, but to total personal freedom. It means not death but life, not a narrowly circumscribed life but “abundant” life. The gate is narrow but not the life. The gate opens out into largeness of life.”

-Elisabeth Elliot

“No sigh ever reached the Most High, except through Christ—I mean so as to move His heart to pour out His grace. Prayers, groans, tears, all these are like arrows without a bow, till Christ comes and fits them to the string, and shoots them home for you and me. All our prayers are like a victim, with the wood and altar; Christ must bring the fire, and then the sacrifice smokes to heaven. He is the messenger. Oh Christian, do you not rejoice in Him then as the Messenger of the Covenant? He is doing thy errands before the throne tonight, pleading for me, pleading for you."

~C. H. Spurgeon

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might, He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Isaiah 40:28-31

"...The central place of faith in Christianity, and its significance...is precisely that which, on man's side, adjusts him to the living and merciful presence and action of a trusted God. In its nature, not by any mere arbitrary arrangement, it is his one possible receptive attitude, that in which he brings nothing, so that he may receive all. Thus "faith" is our side of union with Christ. And thus it is our means of possessing all His benefits, pardon, justification, purification, life, peace, glory."

-Handley Dunelm