Willing Or Wanting…..What We Can Do!
I was praying with a friend about forgiving someone and said to her, “You don’t have to want to forgive them, just be willing to forgive and Heaven will pour out blessings on the situation.”
One of the most exciting personal revelations I have received was that FORGIVENESS is a universal law, a power, like the law of gravity in the earth. There are some groups that build their following on simply teaching others to forgive. It does not matter whether you are a Buddhist, Muslim, Atheist or Christian…..if we are willing to forgive…..I mean, to forgive by a decision of our will, God honors that and peace and favor will follow.
Luke 22:42,43 tells us Jesus went to the mount of Olives and prayed, with such intensity that the capillaries burst on His brow and were as great drops of Blood falling to the ground (Re: Kenneth Wuest’s New Testament)…..in agony Jesus ask the Father to take away the upcoming things that He must endure. But in verse 44 Jesus declared God’s will be done, not His own. Jesus did not want to take the beatings, the mock and abuse, to die for all mankind, but was willing.
In Luke 23:34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” And, the universal law of forgiveness was set in motion–by the words of His mouth–that we might use the example and do the same. Forgiveness is not just available but must be given by the words of our mouth and the intents of our heart.
John 20:23 Jesus reinforces this with His authority to the disciples to forgive sin or retain sin…..our choice. Even though this works for anyone willing it would be ludicrous not to honor, love, respect, worship and follow Jesus as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords as He paid for this privilege with His precious Blood.
There are so many things we don’t want to do, but will be a blessing if we are willing to do them…..how nice to know we have the choice. God is soooooo good!!!
Whoops!!! Had to come back in to say, nothing is an ‘always’ situation. We do most adamantly need to not only be willing but want to invite Jesus into our lives and make HIM LORD of our very existence. And, once we do that we want to do as JESUS directs because we love, respect and honor HIM.
I am sure there are other areas where ‘want’ is important, but isn’t it a wonderful picture of G OD’s grace that many times we just need to be willing.
Pressing in pressing on……