14 Aug Which Hurts More, God’s Will or Yours?
Welcome to our new website! If you have been a regular reader of my blog, you’ll notice a new look and a new name!
I will still be blogging with the same goals in mind as before, to give you helpful information, strategies and resources for spiritual growth! But, we changed the name, from BraveNewDiscipleship to MaxAnders, to help those who are searching for me on the internet to find me more easily. Plus, we added a membership platform that we’re very excited about! We are now able to offer, not only the original hardcopy, but the online access that many of you had requested for the Brave New Discipleship System! So be sure to check that out!
For those of you who had previously subscribed to my email newsletter, you’ll still receive each weeks’s blog post in your inbox. It will still be coming from Max Anders, but it will have a different sending email address and our new logo. And, you’ll still be able to find all of the original blog posts here on the new site in the archives, with a much better searching system.
As always, it is a pleasure to serve you, and I hope this new website does just that. Now, on to today’s blog post with an important question for you!
Which Hurts More, God’s Will or Yours?
THE PAIN OF PURSUING THE WILL OF GOD IS A FRACTION OF THE PAIN OF REJECTING THE WILL OF GOD.
God’s will can certainly be painful. If it’s God’s will that we resign from a job rather than agree to unethical behavior, we lose our job – and only time will tell what else.
If it’s God’s will that we break up with a person rather than pursue an unbiblical relationship, it brings great emotional pain.
If it’s God’s will that we give up addictive habits rather than continue our self-destruction, it brings intense physical and emotional distress.
If it is God’s will that Jesus should go to the cross rather than escaping it, it brings violent physical and emotional pain.
So, would it be easier just to do our own will and reject God’s? Never.
There is sometimes pain in doing God’s will, but it is a fraction of the pain of rejecting His will in favor of our own.
The Princess and the Goblin
In George McDonald’s fairytale, The Princess and the Goblin, he tells the story of an eight-year-old princess who discovers her grandmother, which she didn’t know she had, in a remote and little-known room upstairs in the palace. She is a kind, loving and gracious matriarch. They strike up a special relationship, and over time, and the princess learns to love and trust her.
One day the grandmother gives the princess a ring and tells her that whenever she is afraid or in danger, she should put on the ring, which has a thread attached to it. She is to follow the thread, and it will lead the princess to the grandmother who will save her from the danger.
The palace where she lives is in goblin territory. The princess is never to go out of the palace at night because the goblins are out at night, and they are dangerous. But one night, the princess is terribly frightened of some strange animals that come into her bedroom, so she puts on the ring and starts following the thread attached to the ring.
Instead of leading the princess upstairs to the grandmother, the thread leads her outside at night, away from the palace and up into the mountains where the goblins live. The princess is terrified, but because she trusts her grandmother, she continues to follow the thread.
Unbelievably, the thread leads her into a terrifying cave, and then back, back, farther into the cave until she comes to a pile of rocks that block off the back of the cave. Frightened and disillusioned because she cannot go farther, the princess decides to turn around and follow the thread back to the palace. But when she turns back, the thread disappears.
The thread can only be found by going forward. Going backward, it disappears.
Knowing that she could not find her way back without the thread and knowing that trying to do so would expose her to the goblins, in desperation, the princess begins to pull rocks off the pile, and is eventually able to squeeze through the pile of rocks further into the cave, following the thread. Eventually, despite all apparent evidence to the contrary, the thread eventually leads her to her grandmother and safety.
Lessons in God’s Will
In the parable, the princess is the Christian, the grandmother is God, and the thread is God’s will. The point is that the will of God is our only true source of guidance and safety. Following His will is our only hope. If we turn around, we are lost and on our own in dangerous territory.
Our only hope is to go forward pursuing the will of God…
- Despite the fear (not knowing where we are going)
- Despite the danger (goblin territory)
- Despite the apparent hopelessness (the pile of rocks in the cave)
If we are a Christian and if we are following God’s will, we can rest in the confidence that whatever happens to us is determined by His wisdom, power and love. He will give us grace to go through it, He will use it for good, and He will eternally reward us for it.
The story makes important and powerful points.
- God’s will is our only true safety.
- God’s will can only be found by going forward.
- God’s will is always less painful than our will.
Obedience may be hard, it may take us places we don’t understand or like, it may be frightening. But the alternative is disobedience, which is far more dangerous than obedience. As Timothy Keller has said…
“An ounce of disobedience can hurt me more than ten tons of obedience.”
When we turn away from God’s will, it brings three potential sources of pain into our lives.
- Cause/effect pain. Scripture asks, “Can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?” (Proverbs 6:28) The implied answer is, “of course not!” Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.” We bring trouble down on our own heads by disobedience to God’s will.
- Spiritual warfare. In Ephesians 4:26-27, we read:“Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,and do not give the devil an opportunity.” This tells us that if we do not resolve sin in our lives, it makes us vulnerable to spiritual warfare.
- Divine discipline. When we are disobedient to our Heavenly Father, He disciplines us, as any loving parent would. (Hebrews 12:5-11)
Conclusion
For these reasons, the potential for pain is multiplied in our lives when we reject the will of God. Our will is easier up front but harder down the road. God’s will may be harder up front, but is always much, much easier down the road. There is safety in holiness.
As the princess trusted her grandmother and followed the thread through danger and difficulty to ultimate safety, so we may trust God and follow Him through any danger and difficulty to ultimate safety. No matter where the will of God takes us, it is better than our will.
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