Dear Disciple,
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Luke 13:34-35
Don’t you love this tender look at the heart of your Master, Disciple? We certainly take no delight in the heartache He felt as He said these words, but how very grateful we are that He said them! Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel and the home of her Jewish and Roman leadership, was Jesus’ final destination. He knew that He was going there to be betrayed, suffer, and die. Still, as He looked on that city and saw its people, He loved them.
Tragically, the fact that Jesus loved them did not mean that they were safe. The reason Jesus wept was that He saw their unwillingness to yield and to receive their Messiah. He was willing to embrace them tenderly and protectively, but relationship requires two willing parties.
This is true for us today as well, Disciple. The love that our Master has for us is indescribably great – beyond comprehension. His love is a given and it is faithful. The variable in our relationships with Him is never His love. If there is a variable, it is our love for Him.
The human will is a marvelous gift that God has given us as those who are created to be His images. Unfortunately, that human will can be corrupted, and it has been. What you have been given through the new creation power of Jesus is the option to have your will renewed and recreated so that its corruption can be undone. You are now a citizen of the Kingdom of God who can will to do what pleases the King. You can be tenderly drawn into Jesus’ embrace as chicks are drawn under the wing of their mother because He is willing and, now, so are you.
Today you will have myriad opportunities to express your will, so in those moments worship your Father by surrendering your will to His. Live out the prayer that our Master taught us to pray: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” When we reliably do our Father’s will as our Master always did and does, we are actually experiencing true freedom. While we still have the option to obey our flesh, we are choosing, with eyes wide open, to obey our Father and prove that He has our full allegiance and devotion. This is how we shine as the light of the world!
Surrendering my will to His with you,
Ryan
