³⁸  “…My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; …”  ³⁹ And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” …⁴¹ Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  ⁴² He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” … ⁴⁴ And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.

– Matthew 26:38-44

What would life look like if we loved God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength?  What would my family look like?  My neighborhood? My country?  What if our trust in God was not conditional to what we understand?  What if we did not start with why?  What if it was okay to not understand, but to trust?  What would life look like if we believed that God is in control and it was actually reflected in our lives?  What would you do?  What would I do?

Intimate to the life of faith is a life of obedience.  Obedience by faith is our response to God to do something or not do something that we would not necessarily do on our own or not do on our own.  What if, instead of trying to understand and ask why, we just said, “yes Lord, I trust You.”  “I realize that it has never rained in the history of the world, and that I am no where near the ocean, and I have never built a boat, but I will commit the next 120 years to building a huge ship.  I will deal with the mockers, be okay being called crazy, sacrifice my reputation and risk every relationship I have to do what You have asked me to do.”  Did Noah ever say words like that?  I don’t know, but I bet he thought them and had similar conversations with his wife and kids.  This is the life of surrender modeled for us, and it was only possible because of a deep trust in a loving God.  Obedience means that we keep moving forward when reality is not unfolding according to our expectations.  The bible says that man makes plans, but it is God how directs our steps.  So, that means we are to take steps, take risks, take chances that maybe we are not sure about, but we are trusting that God will direct.  We are not testing God, but rather putting our faith to the test; we step out in faith when things are not perfectly safe or lined with perfect comfort or insulated with perfect peace!  When Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac, did his human instincts allow him to disobey, did he plead with God, did he try and hide Isaac or lie to God?  No, he went up the mountain knowing in his heart that God is able to raise the dead, so he exercised faith knowing that God is all good and that God is all powerful and that God has dominion over death!

When Jesus told us to love God with All, it wasn’t a suggestion, it was to understand that this is all that God desires, the fruit of which will be to love each other!  This is the Christian life.  It is actually very simple, but we get caught up in allowing our hearts to be captured by many other things.  God wants to bless us and He does bless us daily, but once we fail to keep blessings in proper perspective, we begin to over value things that are meant for temporary satisfaction or to meet temporary needs.  Soon the heart of gratitude moves towards idolatry and we introduce competition into our hearts for God’s rightful place.  This is why the timing of God is actually a great blessing!  As believers, we like to speak about God’s timing, and over the course of my faith journey, I have come to believe that God’s timing has a lot to do with our hearts being prepared for the blessings He desires to give us.  When we get honest with God, we can see that perhaps the things we desire, though good things, may require patience, care, love, understanding or gentleness, to care for a blessing of God, and these fruits are not quite in season to properly embrace the blessing!  So, waiting on God can then become a season of preparation where our roots grow deep, our branches get pruned, and as oaks of righteousness, we are growing strong by feeding on the Vine to produce good fruit at the appointed time.  Then we see a harvest of blessings!

“For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His…”

– 2 Chronicles 16:9

So, can we love God enough to trust Him in a way that may not make sense to the world?  What if we loved God enough to trust Him with our life?  With our children?  With our dreams?  Or with anything and everything in our lives that He has placed in our hands?  Believers spend a lot of time trying to understand the will of God.  What if the answer to our prayers was right before us, but it is not what we imagined?  What if God actually gave us more than we could ask or imagine? Is God infinite or can God only reach to the limits of my expectations?  What if God wants to bless us, but He is waiting for us to take that first step of obedience, “to place a foot in the river,” “to go out not knowing where you are going,” “to place Isaac on the altar” to test our hearts.  Or maybe our obedience is to wait, like Hannah waited for a child, like Sarah waited for a child, like Jacob waited for Rachel, or like Rachel waited for a child?  Aren’t you tired of wandering in the wilderness, perpetually failing the same test of faith?  If we are going to love God, we have to trust God.  If we are going to trust God, we have to obey God.  If we are going to obey God, we have to respond in love by belief in His love for us.  What if God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him has eternal life!”  What if God gave His only Son as evidence that He would give us all things!  What if God also gave us His Spirit of Truth as a pledge of our inheritance!  What if God caused all things to work together for good, we just have to love Him!  What if that were true, then would we trust Him knowing our mistakes would produce some good some how?  What if nothing could separate us from the love of God, would we fully trust Him then?  

I guess the bottom line is that the Christian faith in simple terms is understanding that we are called to a life of love.  We love because He first loved us.  If we have all gifts and knowledge and do not have love, we are nothing.  We were made by God and for God, to be loved and to love.  So, while we fret about the will of God, worried about our choices, overthinking pretty much everything, the truth is that love actually is our purpose and the will of God for our lives! 

(Additional Reading: Proverbs 4:23; 16:9; John 3:36; Luke 6:46: Matthew 16:24; 22:37-39; James 1:22-24; John 15:1-13; Romans 12:1-2; Hebrews 11)