The Father's Will

Lately I have been meditating on John 6: 38-40:

“For I came down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the Father’s will which has sent Me, that of all which he Has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”

What if this was our mindset wherever we go? For me, I did not come from Bloomington to Campbellsville University to do my own will. I came here to do the will of Him that sent me. I am not here for myself. I am not to take a thought of what my will would be while I am here. I have no right to my own will. Instead, my every thought is to be what His will is and what He wants of me. And one thing He has made completely clear to me is that I am to be pouring out my life and serving those around me. This would not, out of my flesh, normally be my will. However, my will is being conformed so that it matches His. I am been bought with a price, and I am not my own (I Corinthians 6: 19-20). I am His bond-slave, ready and willing to do whatever He would bid me.

What if this was also our mindset even in the day-to-day, seemingly mundane activities of life? I am not in this classroom, in this cafeteria, out to eat with this friend, at the grocery store with this cashier, hanging out in my room with my room-mate to do my will? I am here, whatever circumstance may be, for others. I am here (it doesn’t matter where ‘here’ is) to do His will and pour out my life for others.

        Jesus goes on to tell us what the Father’s will is. The Father’s will is that we should lose nothing. What in the world does that mean? I believe verse 40 helps to give us the answer:

“And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone which sees the Son and believes on Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

If we truly have the mindset of Jesus, in that wherever we are we are not there to do our own will but the will of the Father, then we will, as a result, become outwardly focused. We will no longer be focused on our needs (our will) but rather how we can showcase Jesus to those around us. Jesus is saying that we are to lose nothing: we are to not let anyone fall by the wayside on our watch. They are to see Jesus in us constantly.

I want to live such a life that people don’t even remember who I am. It doesn't matter if they remember my name or anything about me. What matters is that I so radiate Jesus that they are drawn to Him through me. This is to be the testimony of my life, and this is the will of the Father.

“Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to a decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road. Make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.”

                                                                             -Jim Elliot