Friday, October 23, 2015
As I was reading in the 16th Chapter of the book of Acts earlier this morning, I saw one verse that reminded that it is not always easy to accept God’s will in our lives. Here is the verse: “When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.” (verse 7) The Apostles gathered in Jerusalem and gave Paul and Barnabas their blessing and approval to go preach and teach the gospel to new gentile regions. I’m pretty sure Paul and Barnabas drew up their plans regarding which places and in what order they would be visited but their plans did not go according to their design. To begin with Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement regarding John Mark. Paul did not want him to go and Barnabas did, so they went their separate ways and Silas joined Paul on his journey. Then, when Paul, Silas, and the rest of their group drew near to Bithynia, that plan was scratched, for reasons known only to Him, by the Holy Spirit Himself. I suppose that closed door didn’t sit well with Paul and Silas but if you read what happened later it is easy to see that the Lord afterwards gave them one success after another in the places where the Spirit did allow them to minister in.
I bet that some of you are struggling right now, or have recently, accepting God’s will for a particular situation in your life. All of God’s children will do the same from time to time. May I remind you that accepting the Father’s will was extremely difficult for Jesus when He went to the cross? And please don’t think that, like most of us would, He was afraid for the physical torture that He was about to subject Himself to. No, in His case, the fact that the weight of the entire world’s ugly sin would be put upon His shoulders and the knowledge that the Father would have to turn away from Him at that moment, was torture in itself. Yet, because Jesus willingly accepted the Father’s will, you and I are saved today and enjoy the innumerable blessings all of God’s children receive on a daily basis.
I hope none of you are fighting God’s will in your life today. If you are, not only will you not win, you will miss out on a greater blessing that is just ahead for you and also on His peace and Joy in the meantime. Paul and Silas found out later that humbly accepting the will of God, afterwards brought them to many other joys and victories. We will too.
Memory verse for the week: (Romans 14:8) “If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”
