You Want Me to What???

Tired and exhausted, dealing with hormonal craziness after losing a baby at seven weeks, staring down a hectic week that was supposed to be quiet and relaxed, mentally juggling everything that still needed to be done for Christmas in less than a week, I encountered the prompting of the Holy Spirit. You may have experienced something similar: He puts a thought in your head of something you can do to show God’s love to another person, and even though you have no human reserve from which to draw, you know beyond a doubt that the Holy Spirit is looking to you to do it. Being the super spiritual woman that I am, I had no desire to do what He was asking me to do. I had nothing left to give to another person that day. It was after ten o’clock, I had an early morning and long day ahead of me, and I just wanted to relax and go to bed.

In these moments of obedience, I generally do one of two things: 1) I reason away the prompting by telling God and/or myself all the reasons it’s too much to expect or isn’t really the Holy Spirit speaking, or 2) I pray and ask the Lord to give me the strength to do what He’s asking me to do in spite of myself. This night, by God’s grace and His power, I responded with number two. And that’s when it occurred to me:

          When it’s in me to do something beyond me, it has to be Him!

This is where He wants me all the time. And it’s where He wants you. The most incredible thing about it is this: He will always be the one to cause us to do that which He wants us to do. We simply have to make ourselves available.

Philippians 2:13 tells us, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” This is such a source of comfort and encouragement for me because, so much of the time, all I see is the futility of my own efforts. You know, the good intentions that result in nothing but regrets when my flesh fails to do what the Spirit prompts? So when God opened my eyes to the truth of this scripture, the revelation came with an overwhelming sense of hope. GOD operates and puts forth the power within me in order that I will desire, resolve, intend, determine, and delight in doing His work, and then HE will cause me to do that work according to His will, kindness, delight, pleasure, satisfaction, and desire.

So if God is the one to instill in us the desire to serve Him, and then He’s the one to cause us to act on those desires, what is our part? I believe Romans 12:1 holds the answer: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” There’s an exchange to be made. God extends His compassion to us, and in return, the only logical and reasonable response is for us to be His hired help, even to the point of being willing to die a victim for Him. We are to be at his disposal, continually in a ready state to actively, vigorously, effectively, and powerfully lay ourselves on the altar of selflessness, having an exciting reverence for Him, being pure from every fault, innocent, and modest, acting in a pleasing and agreeable way to God. Not out of a begrudging or religious obligation, but rather, out of love for Him because of what He’s done for us.

Wrapping it all up, here’s the amazingly simple truth of it all:

          He wills and does. We make ourselves available.

Thank you for sticking with me today. Thank you, heavenly Father, for the truth You faithfully reveal to each of us, and for giving me the words to share what You’ve shown me. I pray what I see so clearly in my head and feel so strongly in my heart has come across distinctly on the pages of this blog.

Blessings to you as you become wholly His,

Shauna Wallace

Holy His