A man walking along a California beach was deep in prayer when all of a sudden he said aloud, “Lord grant me one wish”. The sky clouded and a booming voice said, “Because you have tried to be faithful I will grant you one wish.” The man said, “Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can drive over anytime I want to.”
The Lord answered, “Your request is very materialistic. Think of the logistics of that kind of undertaking; the supports required to reach the bottom of the Pacific; the concrete and steel it would take. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time to think of another wish, a wish you think would honor and glorify me”.
The man thought for a long time and finally said, “Lord, I wish that I could understand women. I want to know what they feel inside, what they are thinking when they give me the silent treatment, why they cry, what they mean when they say ‘nothing’, and how I can make a woman truly happy?”
After a few minutes God said, “How many lanes do you want on that bridge?”
Wouldn’t that be great! To ask God for what we want and be able to dictate how it gets done? Today we will be talking about the will of God. If you have ever prayed the Lord’s Prayer, then you will be able identify with the phrase “Thy Will Be Done”
Sometimes in life those are the 4 most difficult words to pray to God. Of course, these words are not hard to pray when we assume God is going to give us what we want. But when we recognize that God may also choose to give us the very thing that we fear and dread, then the words “Thy will be done!” can be almost impossible to utter.
“Thy Will Be Done” I think I have found myself praying those words a thousand times over. Especially when I find myself praying for a long list of very specific things that I want to have happen. You know, “Lord, please heal my daughter’s lungs, please help her sleep, please let me close this deal, please let my husband get me that gift.” I know that asking God for these things doesn’t mean they will happen, and if they do, its only because it part of his grand plan. So instead of waiting for the disappointment or excitement of an answered prayer I instead stop myself and simply hand it over to God and whisper “thy will be done”.
Lets just think about this for just a moment, “Thy will be done”. Not my will, not your will, not even our will, but thy will be done.
I have a friend at work who’s husband is an living example of what it means to hand it all over to God, one day we were talking about a family member who had an unusual eye injury and the family was on a desperate search to find a medical answer for this person and her husband looked at her and said, “Why don’t we pray about it?” – Pray about it, that’s it…thy will be done. To have that kind of faith that God will protect us if we just ask him…I know I’m still working on having a faith that strong.
The truth is, we can never know the plans our Lord has for us all we can know is what we are promised in Romans “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.”
Here is a concept I struggle with … In ALL things God works for the good of those who love him. Its easy to see that when times are good, but what about the tragedies? What about Orlando or Sandy Hook, where is God working for the good, because surely there were people in both places that loved him. Its so hard for us not to know the plan. We might not ever know the good that was worked in any tragic situation, but we need to believe that God’s plan will bring out that good and that it had to happen in order for something good to happen later. That those touched by these incidents were meant to be there to fulfill his purpose.
Sometimes difficult times don’t have to be a world away, they can hit closer to home than we would like.
I have two beautiful daughters, my oldest is about to turn 3 and my youngest just turned one. With my first daughter I was determine to do everything myself. I was going to be that example mom (with a little help from the drugs!) The hospital I was delivering at is known for having only one or two attending physicians on staff and lots of residence (I suppose the mom and baby stuff is a little more routine).
At one point there was a shift change a new resident started her shift. She told me that she wanted give me a checkup before giving me some drugs to help my labor move along. I can remember seeing the look of confusion on her face (she must have been a first year resident because she didn’t have her poker face yet) and she told me she wanted to give me an ultrasound to confirm something. She comes back with the tech and they do the ultrasound. She still looks baffled so she tells me that she is not trained to read ultra-sounds and that she wants to discuss with the attending. So in comes the attending and they do the ultrasound again. He says to the resident. Its easy to tell, if you move the wand horizontal then vertical and it stays round that is the head, if the image flattens that the butt….see? (He shows her the head under my diaphragm). My baby was upside down!
The world went into hyper-speed at that moment. Suddenly we were talking about surgery. I will tell you, I did not plan for this. My whole life I had never had a broken bone or any other surgery (that I remember). I had never been cut open and I had never been in true pain. I’m an emotional mess and signing papers detailing the risks of the surgery…and in my head I think “I could die.”
Everything after that was such a blurr, I hardly remember it. Between my emotions and exhaustion I think I checked out for most of the surgery and recovery. It seemed like forever before I was able to see my baby girl. And the pain…I was so afraid of the pain. As you might imagine my recovery was difficult, more mentally than physically. I was so afraid of the pain that I had trouble coming off the pain medication. At what should have been one of the best times of my life, I struggled. But made it through and my baby girl is perfect and super flexible. At the time I could have never guessed that all of this had to come to pass as part of the Lord’s plan.
Fast forward almost two years to the birth of my second daughter. Since I had already been through one C-section I thought, why not go through another? I knew what I was in for and this time it wouldn’t be a surprise. Besides I received an extra two weeks leave for the surgery. This time I remember everything! Including the look on my husband’s face while he watched the nurses making a fuss over something, and then I could hear others in the room asking to “see”. Afterwards when I was in my room with the baby, my physician told me what had happened. The baby’s umbilical was unusually long, so long in fact that she managed to get two knots into it. One knot is normal and not something most people would worry about, but with two knots, chances were if I had delivered her normally, she would not have gotten through the experience safely, if at all. You see, medical staff cant’ see the knots in ultrasounds so there was no way to know that she could have been in trouble and during delivery the knots would have tightened and cut off supplies to the baby. If I hadn’t have had that first C-section, even with the difficulties it caused, I wouldn’t have had the second and I might not have my beautiful baby.
Now I don’t for one minute believe I know the end of the story. I don’t know why so much was planned to help Elizabeth get into this world safely, but I’m hoping someday to see part of the plan that God has for her. As we are told in Jeremiah “11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
God knows the plans he has for each one of us and they are good. We simply need to love him and listen for him in our lives. According to Luke 11:27 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” We need to trust that good or bad if we love God everything is happening according to God’s will. But its hard isn’t it? We want to control everything in our lives, we want to take the credit when something goes incredibly well and we want to place blame when things don’t work out as we expected. Its in these times we need to step back and breathe and say “Thy will be done”
If we think that we have problems with this, take comfort in that we were not the only one that feel a little short on fully accepting God’s Will. In Matthew 26:39 Its just before the events that lead to Jesus crucifixion started, Jesus is in the garden praying for a second time when he asks “My Father, if it is possible, take this cup of suffering from me!” Even Jesus who knew what was in store asked God to change his mind if it was possible. Then in the next breath he stops and accepts his fate with the words “Yet not what I want, but what you want.”
Hillary Scott, the female singing for Lady Antebellum has a Christian song out on the radio called “Thy Will”, I would encourage you all to listen to it because the lyrics are really powerful but I would like to share a few lines from the song:
I’m so confused
I know I heard you loud and clear
So, I followed through
Somehow I ended up here
I don’t wanna think
I may never understand
That my broken heart is a part of your plan
When I try to pray
All I’ve got is hurt and these four words
Thy will be done
I know you’re good
But this don’t feel good right now
And I know you think
Of things I could never think about
It’s hard to count it all joy
Distracted by the noise
Just trying to make sense
Of all your promises
Sometimes I gotta stop
Remember that you’re God
And I am not
So
Thy will be done
I know you see me
I know you hear me, Lord
Your plans are for me
Goodness you have in store
So, thy will be done
Is there anything in your life that you are struggling with that you can turn over to God right now? Are there any plans that you need to give to God? We may not understand what God is doing, we may not feel good about it or agree with it, but if we give our lives, our struggles, our joys to God his will make all things work for His glory! God’s will for you is one of eternal blessing and when you give it ALL over to God he will lead you in that direction.
Amen!
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