Over the past few weeks we’ve seen God powerfully at work in our church community. People came forward courageously seeking God’s healing power two weeks ago. For a lot of us, our experience with healing, at least as it pertains to the church, is mostly negative. We’ve seen and heard about “healing services” that were little more than gimmicky sideshow acts relying upon group dynamics and mass hysteria. But, despite the occasional negative press, we believe God heals–not in every instance, not always in the ways we expect, nor in the timeline we’d prefer–but, God calls us to come to Him that we might seek His restorative power in our lives.
Here’s an example (I’ll leave it purposely anonymous) I prayed with someone whose marriage of several decades was crumbling. His wife had left him several weeks earlier. This past Sunday, seeing him at church, I mentioned that I had been praying for him throughout the week. After a brief embrace, he said that on the previous Monday (the day following our service), his estranged wife called, wanting to reconcile their marriage.
No matter how it happens, God’s restoration power still amazes me. He’s at work in this church transforming the ordinary lives of hurting people.
Then, this past weekend, we talked about the agony of Jesus’ anticipation before the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus, looking into the specter of the cross was neither stoic, nor Hollywood-heroic. Instead, he wept, pleading with God for another way. But, ultimately Jesus said, at the end of his harrowing prayer: “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” What marked Jesus’ life was his willingness to carry out the most difficult tasks before him, not because he thought they made the most sense, not because they seemed to give him the greatest fame, but because they were what His Father wanted.
This week, what does it look to like to say, courageously, “not my will, but what you will” to God? What decisions, challenges, trials, confrontations, or conversations are in front of you that are not at all comfortable, easy, peaceful, or even clear that require your obedience?
Ecstatic about all that God is doing in our midst,
Jeff
