The will of the Father

(John 6:38) “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

How often have we misplaced or even lost something needful, this seems to be happening to me a lot more of late; my short term memory seems to be even shorter. This I confess does tend to frustrate me, but when I see it as a help and not a burden although it can become burdensome, it forces me to consider the Lord Jesus’ example. Instead of always complaining about something why not look to use your weakness as a tool in bringing you closer to Christ, how you may wonder? I now am forced to pray that God would help my memory; it was not always like that. It is a hindrance to daily living, it does slow me down, I appear far clumsier than ever before, but never has my fellowship been as sweet with Jehovah God in this area of my life. So often we can lose the company of Christ as our companion, we no longer commune with Him continuously throughout the daily, life, through sin or circumstance robs us from sweet fellowship that Christ has won on our behalf. I mean if we neglect so great an opportunity it is at our own peril. We seem to complain and always moan about this or that, stop! Call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved, yes even saved from your circumstance, this does not only apply to our final destination, heaven! If we call out to Him along the way He will come to our aid. He must for he cares for us as weak and as silly as we get at times our Lord is touched with the feelings of our infirmities, He cares for all those whom His Father has given Him and He will not lose one of them, we will all make it to heaven one day. This is true, I lie not; (John 6:38-39) “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.”

The Lord Jesus assures us, in general that He came from Heaven upon His Father’s business, “not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” He voluntarily came from heaven and descended leaving behind all the glory that was His in heaven, a long journey and step onto earth, a world filled with calamity, we may well ask what moved Him to do this. Why would one take on such an expedition? The text teaches us that He came not to do His own will, but the will of His Father; Not that our Saviour could ever oppose His Father’s will as some from that day suspected. He however without any uncertainty has left us this reality today reassuring us of the hope we have in Him. Christ did not come into this world as a private person, that acts for himself only, but as a public character, to act as an ambassador authorized by a public commission; He came into the world as God’s great agent and the world’s great physician. It was not with His own agenda in mind that He came to earth but rather to settle affairs at His Father’s request.

While Christ was on earth, He did not carry any private design, nor had any separate interest at all. The scope of His whole life was to glorify God and do well to men. He never consulted His own ease, even when heavy trial came against Him. Here is a great example of our Saviour' resolve and determination to please His father;

(Luke 22:41-42) “And he was parted from them (some of his disciples) about a stone's cast; and he kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Even thou this experience placed His body under such trauma, in fact He began to sweat drops of blood, He nevertheless never went after His own will as a man, but regardless of the discomfort He now faced, His objective was to do His Father’s will.

When He was to lay down his life, although He had a human nature, He set aside the consideration of that, and resolved His will as man into the will of God: “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

We see God giving Him a private instruction that He should save the entire chosen remnant, in other words all those whom God the Father had elected (chosen) from before the foundation of the earth would be given into the hands of the Lord Jesus; this was and is the covenant of redemption between Father and Son. “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” This is the charge the Father entrusted His son with, “that all He had given me I should lose none.”

This is so reassuring that it should breed such zeal and vigour into our lives, the hope of never being lost, not because we might like the sound of it as a comforting thought, and that it is, but because we are in the hands of a victorious Saviour, he cannot and will not lose any that the Father has given Him. It is impossible! The text is clear and precise on this truth.

Having said that, if you are not finding the joy of the Lord in your life, tell me where you lost the company of Christ? The most likely place you lost Him you will find Him.

“Tell me where you lost the company of a Christ, and I will tell you the most likely place to find him. Have you lost Christ in the closet by restraining prayer? Then it is there you must seek and find him. Did you lose Christ by sin? You will find Christ in no other way but by the giving up of the sin, and seeking by the Holy Spirit to mortify the member in which the lust doth dwell. Did you lose Christ by neglecting the Scriptures? You must find Christ in the Scriptures. It is a true proverb, “Look for a thing where you dropped it, it is there.” So look for Christ where you lost him, for he has not gone away. But it is hard work to go back for Christ. Bunyan tells us, the pilgrim found the piece of the road back to the Arbour of Ease, where he lost his roll (scroll), the hardest he had ever travelled. Twenty miles onward is easier than to go one mile back for the lost evidence.” C.H.Spurgeon

Let us take care then once we have found our master to cling to Him. I say if you are in His embrace then squeeze even tighter, always remembering that all of God’s children are unconstrained to come to the throne of grace with boldness in time of need. I realise that life and all its challenges sometimes take preference in our lives but when we put the Lord first how life and the peace it brings begins to surpass all understanding, come what may! Please be merciful Father, and help all of us who struggle as pilgrims to understand the value of this lesson, I love you My God, all honour, power and glory belongs to you and no other.

Signing off

Tyrone