Right willing is a foundation for right knowing

Over the last week I've been thinking particularly about the will of God and the Glory of God. I listened to a sermon by John Piper (Willing God's Will.............) which revealed a part of scripture to me I'd previously rushed over, and set me thinking on the subject of my will, God's will and how we can know truth, and what a revelation I found!

I don't know about you, but I love to think and reason through things. God doesn't go against attaining knowledge or using our brains but with reason and rationality comes this basis of thought, 'If I can work through this problem I will know the truth!'  But you know something Jesus seems to say in John ch 7 v 1 - 24 that our knowing and working things out has little to do with knowing what is true! In fact Jesus turns it all on its head as he so often does!

In John Ch7 v 14 - 18 it says Jesus went up into the temple to teach and the Jews marvelled saying "How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?" So Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but he who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood."

So what is this passage saying to me? The bottom line is this:
'Before you can know Christ and that he is true, you're will must be in alignment with His. And your desire must be to exhort Him above yourself.' 

The Jews in this passage are so like we are today when it comes to leaders, pastors, celebrities.  They marvelled at Jesus because he did miracles (7v3), because he sounded learned (v15). They only saw the shell. So often we do the same, we see a great pastor speaking and think 'His teaching is very learned...he is very intellectual....he speaks very articulately!' We see a beautiful worship singer we say 'how beautiful she is, what an amazing voice.' We see celebrities and envy their looks. We compare ourselves to these standards. In our natural humanness we are 'shell seekers' as John Piper put it.  And we crave for praise. I don't know about you but I used to be such a people pleaser. I still can be sometimes, can't we all? But often people pleasing has a hidden motive. It's about self-exhortation. We want to be liked. 

But this is where Jesus is different. He didn't care about being 'liked.' He said to his brothers in 7v6-7,"the world cannot hate you" (cos they were people pleasers!) but he said of himself that the world, " hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil." And the great thing about Jesus is he didn't have an academic qualification, he spoke truth and was truth. Sometimes we seek for beauty and intellect. But neither of these things can bring us to God in themselves. We can be impressed by teachers and speakers, and by their words but not touched by the truth at all. Scary thought. 

In the Bible it says that God doesn't care one jot about our outward shell. 1 Samuel 16 v 6-7  describes Samuel looking at one of David's brothers as they search for a new leader, "When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before him." But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." This verse was my favourite as a child and teenager and I believe God gave it to me for good reason. I was crippled by comparing myself to others. By the beautiful girls in my youth group, by the intelligent people on my courses and God taught me a precious thing, 'I take no value, absolutely no value in those things. What I care about is your heart.'

Jesus modelled the perfect manhood. In John 7v16 he says this, "my teaching is not mine but he who sent me." This blew me away! So here is Jesus, son of God, who could have easily said, 'this teaching is mine!' After all He is God! But no, Jesus chose to align himself to God's will in everything, he only desired to give His father glory. Whoah! And he was God's son!! 


So how does that bring us back to the verses above? Why does this all shake me up so much? For this reason: that if I align myself with God's will before anything else...if that is the way that I will know truth and know Him better, it takes me totally and utterly out of control!! Bang go my rational theories, my systematic thinking! 


What am I left with? I'm left with faith, faith to believe that the most important thing for me to do is to align myself to God's will. By giving Him glory above anything else. This is all I need to know and do. This means a huge trust and surrendering going on. No what-ifs, or what if he doesn't show up! It doesn't mean an easy life either. Jesus did the Father's will but people despised Him. But there is a great safety, a great peace, a great joy in being right in God's will, in His arms! I is better than anything else, so much better than doing things through my own might and thinking!


Oh how I need every single day to bring Him glory alone. No wonder he taught us these words first in the Lords prayer, 'Hallowed be thy name, thy will be done, thy kindgdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.' Because everything else hangs on that. In John Piper's Sermon (from much of which this is taken) he suggests that we need to pray these words daily and ask God to help us to desire His will and His glory above anything else. 

Do you ever wonder what is going on with God's timing?

"For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3v1)

Do you sometimes look back on a period of time and wonder, "What was that all about, God?" I do! As I filtered through my emails earlier today and realised the majority of it was junk mail, I thought I could do with filtering through the last two weeks in my mind too. The last two weeks have gone by in a bit of a blur. I have  moved the majority of my belongings to two different places, attended a wedding, visited sick friends, prayed over family situations and made a new friend. Lots seems to have gone on and I'm looking forward to the next week of rest and R&R to process and filter through it all. I've not really had time to sit down and spend quality time with God over the last few days but the verse above has been ringing in my head.

I don't know about you but I often associate Ecclesiastes 3 with funerals and find the passage rather depressing. Is the writer of Ecclesiastes an atheist or existentialist? He sometimes expresses some confusing theology. The book reminds me more of 'The Outsider' by Albert Camus than the Bible! However he has a point. There seems to be times when God decides things are meant to happen and times when they are not. In other words his timing is perfect! Sometimes this is absolutely frustrating! Why do I make a new friend down south when I'm about to move up north? Why is my friend sick when I'm moving away from her? Why why why?

I think the writer of Ecclesiastes is reminding us that God knows that there is a time and place for every activity. We may wonder why this thing happened when it did, but he may have another plan, completely different to the one we intended. Maybe even better than we imagined. God only knows and once again what do I have to do??? Trust Him!!! Ahh back to that again. My blog seems to have a repeated theme: Surrender!