When Obeying God Means Going Against the Grain
As we prepare for Holy Week, I’m reminded that God’s calling in our lives is often counter-intuitive.
Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.” Matthew 26:36-9
Just when we think we have life figured out, just when we’re starting to feel comfortable, God calls us to follow Him into uncertainty, into potential or certain pain. Not our will, but His will.
Is this because He’s mean? Is He standing over us waiting until we feel good so He can rain on our parade? Is He just trying to lord His power over us? (No pun intended…okay, well, maybe pun intended. But go ahead and groan, I know it was bad.)
Not at all.
God calls us to uncomfortable, sometimes excruciatingly painful situations with a wonderful purpose in mind. In leading Jesus to the cross, the Father was extending salvation to all of creation. The cross didn’t feel good. It was foolishness to the world! No human being, apparently even Jesus, God in the flesh, would have chosen death on a cross as the best way to execute a plan of salvation.
Yet Jesus said, “Not as I will, but as You will.”
In Matthew 16, we see an example of Jesus dealing with criticism concerning God’s counter-intuitive call on His life:
From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to You!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”
Have there been times in your life when God has called you away from comfort? Have you been called into an uncertain or painful situation? How have people in your life responded? Have you had to face challenges from loved ones who were well-meaning but ultimately trying to take your eyes off of the Lord? How did you deal with that discouragement?
