Not my Will but Yours

“God is greater than our heart and knows all things.” I John 3:20

This verse is the context of condemnation and assurance in Christ Jesus. However, as I was meditating on it, I realized that it can also relate to what we are prone to base our decisions and actions on: feelings.

It’s so easy for me to shift my focus from the cross to what I’m feeling currently. We all have desires and longings that are not wrong in and of themselves and may even be from the Lord, such as the desire to go overseas to spread the Gospel, the desire to pursue a certain degree or course of study, the desire for marriage/family, etc. However, God’s ways and plans are above and greater than all these.

His ways are perfect. We may have lofty, ambitious, and terrific dreams, even ones that He has placed within us. However, they must constantly be surrendered to Him. His plans are above our own.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55: 8-9

“There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.” Proverbs 19: 21

“The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue is from the LORD…Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.” Proverbs 16: 1, 3

The word for “know” in I John is “ginosko,” meaning it’s the most intimate, marriage kind of knowing. God knows every intricate detail about His plan for us. We must trust that His will is perfect and that He will work out His perfect plan for our lives in His own time and way. And even though we may not understand why we are at the place we are at right now or why these seeming God-birthed desires within us are not coming to fruition, He knows all things.

So, trust. Wait. Abide. Seek Him. And consume yourself without pouring out your life for others.

“For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for him that waits for Him.” Isaiah 64: 4

After all, it’s all about His glory, not our desires or feelings. So the only way for Him to get glory out of us is if we yield our wills completely to His so that His purpose would be accomplished in us. And when His will and ways are given the preeminence, the result will leave us speechless. He is worthy!