Who's Will?

“Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.” (Ps 143:10 AV)

 

The prayerful request of this verse is contrary to our fallen nature.  To desire the will of God is to surrender our wills.  To wish the LORD to teach His will means we must unlearn our own.  To learn the will of God means to be corrected when we are wrong.  It means submission against our wicked natures and compliance to the divine will.  To pray this prayer one cannot be ignorant of the implications.  To pray this prayer requires and understanding things are not always going to be easy.  To pray this prayer means the petitioner has meditated upon the meaning of this request and knows there will come times when he may second guess that request.  Or, on a positive note, the petitioner will be filled with joy that his old nature was disciplined under the perfect divine will of a loving God.  The motive for this prayer is the second phrase.  He is God.  More importantly, He is the God of the petitioner.  For that reason alone, the request is made.

If the first phrase is genuine, it cannot be separated from the second.  One cannot ask for the will of God unless God is God.  If we ask for the will of God and God is not God, our motive becomes a selfish one.  If our motive is a selfish one, then our pursuit of God’s will is destined to fail.  I have been using some of my spare time going through my father’s photos.  He passed away recently, and I wanted to organize and edit these photos so w my family can view them with a bit of understanding.  Although I cannot endorse the organization, we were raised with scouting.  My brothers and I in Boy Scouts.  My sisters in Girl Scouts.  Going through these pictures reminded me of the relationship we had with our father.  He was the scoutmaster.  And a very good one at that.  His thing was not winning.  His thing was doing things the right way.  The skills we learned, we learned as they were meant to be learned.  One of the pictures he has was of the Klondike Derby.  A weekend when troops of the same council would gather for the skills competition.  The picture was of an ice rescue.  The scenario was of someone who had fallen through the ice and the rest of the patrol had to get him out and to safety.  My father refused to stack the deck for the best time.  Our patrols were balanced with age and experience.  This meant our times were average and never any better.  All scouts gained the experience.  All scouts grew together.  We did this because he was the Scoutmaster.  We also did this because he was my father.

If we are to gain the first, we must make the second our reality.  If we are to learn and live by the perfect will of God, then God must be our God.  The first step in discipleship is to deny self.  This means to deny one’s self even and existence.  There is no will outside of God’s will.  Self does not exist.  God is God and we are not.  God is our God and our hearts, minds, and wills are conformed to His perfect will.  If we are to learn and live by the perfect will of God, then there can be no other God.  There can be no other priority that competes with God.  There can be no other interest that is equal with God.  There can be no other relationship on the same level as God.  There is nothing or no one that comes close to God. When God is our God, then we can begin to learn of His ways.