For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to
do of his good pleasure. (Phil 2:13)
A new work is always exciting, filled with expectation and the fruit of the Spirit springing from within. Beginnings are easy, but as we continue forward, resistance, pressure and confrontations take their toll. One day we awake and to find it hard to continue, the joy is gone, but the work remains. We press on for we know we must, but going forward wishing that the joy and fruit we began with were still present.
What changed? When we begin to use absolute terms like “duty”, “calling” and “faithfulness” to describe the way forward, a change has occurred away the grace of God we professed at the beginning. The fruit of the Spirit we once enjoyed, now no longer accompanies us as it once did. Faith is not the issue, if it was we would not choose words like duty and faithfulness as a way forward.
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the
land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with
the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
(Isa 1:19-20)
We missed God's warning to be both “willing and obedient” and the promise to us that God works in us both “to will and to do” His good pleasure. Are these one and the same, if God speaks of them separately? We believed because we were still obedient that we are still willing. Our willingness left, but our obedience remained, so to accomplish the task we begin to burn flesh instead of the grace of God. For this reason the “works of the flesh” are with us in our duties as the “the fruit of the Spirit” has disappeared. As our frustration has grown, mumurrings and disputings have broken out within us, and are about to spread to others around us, for we can no longer restrain them. What began as a work to shine the light of God into the world, has now become pit of darkness we have fallen into. How do we recover our willingness?
Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. (Mat 26:38)
Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is an example for us, but strictly speaking, Jesus’ requests were not the reason for His prayer. The object was not that "this cup be taken” from Him, but rather to align His will with the Fathers. “If it be possible that this cup pass from me” might be the actual words of our prayer in our circumstance, but the answer is about the agreement of our wills. Jesus had been heading to the cross for some time, He knew the will of the Father and the plan of salvation through His suffering, but this knowledge did not exempt Him from the crisis of human will. Such times of prayer are not about the requests we make, but about the submission and surrender we experience to the will of God.
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me:
nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. (Luke 22:42)
We might add will-power to the list of needs, but the will-power we are asking for is not the forcefulness of God’s will which carries us through to the end, but we means to wrestle our own will into submission; for only then can we obtain any power to do the will of God. The end of this wrestling will bring us to rest when it is fully accomplished it, but we must pass the night in the Garden of Gethsemane as did our Lord. If we find the grace of God to work within us “to will”, we shall again find the grace of God working in us “to do” which has eluded us.
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to
do of his good pleasure. (Phil 2:13)
