“And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” (Mark 9:24)
Do you have the will to serve Christ, or are you continuously praying for the Lord to give you the will to serve Him? Do you ask Him to give you the desire to serve, the initiative to read His Word, do you ask Him to put within you the desire to desire Him?
We know John 15:5 to be true, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” but how much of what you do for the Lord do you need to be, shall we say, especially prompted to perform? Is reading your Bible everyday a great pleasure you look forward to, or an obligation you believe you should perform, and so in that sense a burden, one you ask the Lord to help you with.
Should I be rude and say that it does not show much initiative on your part, does it, having to ask the Almighty to give you a heartfelt desire to even just pick up the Scriptures for twenty minutes or so each day.
“Pray without ceasing.” (1st Thess. 5:17) If your prayers revolve around your wants you are not going to be able to pray without ceasing, unless you are totally dissatisfied with what you already have been blessed with, so do you need to ask the Lord to teach you to praise His name, or does that come naturally to you?
If you are seeking first the Kingdom of God, if your life revolves around the contemplation of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, the wonders of God, all of what lays in store for those who have given their lives to Him, and what is required of you while you remain in the flesh in this life then your will is in line with the will of God, and your main prayers focus on how you can make yourself more available to His will for His glory and less on your own will.
The man in our opening verse believed, what he hated in himself was that doubt that lives in everyone of us who serves Christ, those “what if” thoughts that flow through our minds. The Holy Spirit through Paul gave us an answer to those doubts. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) That is what holds back our will to serve Christ, it is what hinders us, what if that happens, what if I say this and I am rebuked, what if the Lord decides He wants me to go down that dark and scary path. There is not enough paper on the planet for me to write down all the “what ifs.”
When David wrote “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4) He meant it, when the Lord Jesus Christ said, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42) He meant it.
When we ask the Lord to lead us, for the Holy Spirit to guide us, what we are saying is Lord, align my will with yours, hold my hand when I fear, calm my mind when I am in doubt, push me forward when I hesitate and pick me up when I fall, they will be done, not mine.
Each one of us wants to be profitable, each and everyone of us wants our lives to reflect the life of Christ, everyone of us wants the Lord God to be glorified in our lives, and that is what He wants for us as well, but we must be willing to take those steps through the fire, to not spend too much time beside the still water, to be willing to be transformed into the image of His Son.
Do you have the will, the desire to serve Christ, or are there nearly perpetual feelings of inadequacies within you? If so, then what is hindering you from saying, “Thy will be done?”
