Since the dawn of creation, God has searched for a people that joyfully desires to perform His will. Yet mankind continually strives behind his plow, trying to dig new and easier furrows in the field of life. We resist following those paths revealed by the Spirit of God. It is this struggle against the Spirit, which we must conquer. We must not try to create shortcuts around the place called Gethsemane.
It was at Gethsemane that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, said: ". . . . not as I will, but as thou wilt." There, Christ laid down His fleshly fear, and His fleshly will and, as a true Son, he asked for the will of the Father to be done. Our modern Gethsemane is anywhere we lay down our will and receive the will of Christ, whether in our car, at our job, or just reading the paper. The place called Gethsemane, is just that, a place. Anywhere, anytime that we lay down this fleshly sinful will of man and continue in the will of Christ, we have conquered Gethsemane.
However, Christians for too long have believed that Gethsemane comes but once in a lifetime. It doesn't. It appears every time our sinful nature tries to create an easier path and the precious, loving, Spirit of God instructs us to stay His course. Here we are agin at a place called Gethsemane. Will we, as Christ did, lay down our fleshly will and asked for the will of the Father? Or, will we ". . . yield ye Your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin?" (Rom. 6:13)
In our everyday life, we face Gethsemane a thousand times over. In each of these instances we must choose to whom we will yield the members of our body to and who we will allow our members to serve? We must, as Joshua instructed, ". . . choose you this day whom ye will serve." (Jos. 24:15)
Let us look at this life as it is, a continual war between the flesh and the spirit. Paul said in Gal. 5:17 that ". . .the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." We find throughout the Bible that God despises the will of sin.
Our fleshly will is sin, and must die, that the will of Christ may live IN us. We must be lead by the Spirit and not by the wants and desires of the flesh, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." (Rom. 8:14) |
