Whose Will?

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way”

“He’s very strong willed.”

“She has the will to win.”

“I can and I will!”

“Will” is an interesting thing.  It has many definitions both as a verb and a noun.  A quick look on www.dictionary.com shows these definitions for the noun version:

-the faculty of conscious and especially of deliberate action

-the power of control the mind has over its own actions

-power of choosing one’s own actions

-the act or process of using or asserting one’s choice

-wish or desire

-purpose or determination, often hearty or stubborn determination

-the wish or purpose as carried out or to be carried out

As I read John 16-18 this week I was impressed with the “will” of Jesus Christ.  Well, I was impressed that his will was to follow someone else’s will – no matter what!  That doesn’t happen very often, if ever. 

We want to do OUR will.  I want to do MY will.  But Jesus was different.  Throughout John 16 and 17 he talks with his disciples about the will of his father.

As Jesus was being arrested in John 18, Peter started to resist and fight back.  He wanted to do HIS will.  But Jesus was different.  In verse 11 he tells Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

When Jesus stood before Pilate he likely could have talked his way out of his arrest and sentencing.  Pilate was almost asking him to do so.  Pilate was looking for any reason to let Jesus go.  But Jesus was different.  When Pilate asked Jesus if he were a king he responded in verse 37, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.”

Jesus was bent on fulfilling the will and purpose that God had given him.  Nothing and no one was going stop him from doing that.

All too often I am bent on doing what I want to do, when I want to do it, to fulfill myself and MY will.  But Jesus was different.

Whose will are you living for today?

-PT