To follow God's will

that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. – 1 Peter 4.2

From the very beginning of the word of God there have been two options – man’s way and God’s way. Eve had a choice to do her will, based on her own desires, or God’s will. Cain kept back the best of his crops to the Lord and Abel gave his best. Cain’s response was not to do right the next time, but to kill his brother. From that point on the Bible is the story of the battle between man’s lusts and God’s will.

We still face that problem today – even as believers.

Before we were saved we were bound by or flesh. We were captive to sin. But now we are free to follow God and our flesh has no power over us. Jesus died, was buried, and rose again to free us from the chains that bound us so that we don’t have to give in to our lusts and desires.

We have the power to not live in the flesh trying to fill our desires. We have the power to live in the will of God.

Why don’t we do it?

We do it because folks tend to do what is important to them. It is not always true – but there is a lot of truth behind the old adage ‘you do what you want to do.’ We follow our flesh because we want to do that more than we want to follow God’s will. It suits our desires – and that is the rub.

I often am amazed at my proclivity to do wrong. Far too often I know what I should do and yet I choose the other. One would think that after decades of salvation I would have learned to do right – and yet I sin.

The convicting part of this is that I can’t blame anyone but me. No matter how wicked the world gets I still have the power of the Holy Spirit to do God’s way instead of my way. There is no excuse. My flesh is powerless – but the Holy Spirit within me is all powerful.

Thank God for this powerful reminder in my life today.