My Dear Friend,

My fellow Christian, are you not getting your way? Hmm... Perhaps there's a divine design behind your frustrating situation.

Says one spiritually minded, anonymous writer, "It is the self-will that must be crucified in each of us. It is hateful to God, therefore, He constantly allows trials of various kinds to come against that self-will."

So, the attitude of acceptance is key here: the biblical mindset that accepts every thing that touches our lives - good, bad, and in between - as coming directly from the hand of our loving, faithful, all-powerful heavenly Father for some good purpose.

If we accept that when we don't get our way God is getting His - and He will faithfully work all things for our good (Romans 8:28), it will radically change our viewpoint. And that will radically change the spiritual quality of our life. Then we have only to stay very close to Christ in our adverse situations and continue trusting and obeying Him and He will bring us through to victory every time - in His time, in His way, when His "good" purpose of character transformation has been accomplished in us.

This seemingly weak attitude is spiritually powerful. It is spiritual dynamite: it will blast away the domination of self-will in our lives and set us "free indeed" (John 8:36). Sadly, most Christians have to have their way or, like Jonah, they pout, rebel, and fret and remain out of the Spirit and useless to God until He gives them what they want. Then they cheer up, resume their devotion, and return to faithful service. This is immaturity, not spirituality. It makes us hard, not easy, to live and work with. It makes us stiff, not pliable, in God's hands. It is disappointing to Him, not delightful. It makes us undercomers, not overcomers.

Conversely, the truly free, spiritually minded Christian will abide in peace, in close touch with God, joyful, and faithful in his (or her) divinely called service, all while many things, sometimes everything, in their life is not the way they want it to be. Want examples? Moses, forty years keeping sheep in a desert. David, a decade fleeing for his life from a sin-hardened, demonic, father-in-law - who happened to be king of his nation! Paul, many years of arduous ministry service with almost non-stop persecution of one kind or another. Yet every day they were joyful and fruitful, miraculously free from the tyrannically oppressive demands of self-will. Just knowing they were in God's will, doing God's will, increasing God's will, was enough for them.

If we, too, learn to say, "Thank you, Lord," to every situation, blessed or bitter, as Paul wisely instructed (1 Thessalonians 5:18), and as Job humbly demonstrated (Job 1:20-21), the tyrannical domination of our self-will is dying, and freeing Christ in us to rise and live and bear fruit in a new, stronger way.

The result is a Christian who is learning to always align himself or herself with God's will in every situation instead of trying to use prayer, or even fasting, to try to force God to always align situations with their will.

This, the author above continues, "is a further step to the completeness of our death with Christ and soon the 'peace of God which passes all understanding' will guard our hearts, for these very trials will be found to have brought us into full union with the will of our God."

Full union with God's will! Ah, that sounds great doesn't it? And full conformity to Jesus' character image, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, full spiritual authority, full joy, and full usefulness. Isn't this the end we want to reach?

Then let us realize every situation the Father sets before us is divinely designed to bring us there. Every trial - including the one you're in at this very moment - is an opportunity to yield your self-will to God's will. If you continue yielding to Him daily when things don't go your way, it will form a new habit of union with God's will. The more you practice this habit - this attitude of acceptance - the easier it becomes. Eventually you come into full union - complete, unbroken, blissful, secure agreement - with God's will. And with God Himself!

Then God has you fully. You are fully set apart. Fully joined to Him. Fully trained. Fully willing. Fully ready to bear abundant spiritual fruit. And He can use you at any moment for any work or any ministry or any mission for any purpose with any people in any place on earth! All because you no longer insist on having your way.

So, the next time you don't get your way, believe God is getting His. Heartily agree with Him, "Not my will, but thine be done, Lord!" Humbly ask Him to have His way in you so He can have His way through you. Hmm … here's something to ponder and practice.

Pondering, practicing,

Greg Hinnant
Greg Hinnant Ministries