A Sword or Submission

Not too long ago, I was listening to a message by Adrian Rogers. If you have never heard a message by Adrian Rogers, stop what you are doing now and listen to one of his messages. He was a gifted pastor and the particular message was sent to me by one of the members of my congregation. I listened intently and was blown away by the message. In it, he spoke of Peter and where Peter went wrong and when Peter got it right, a message most of us can identify with if we are honest. Where it went wrong for Peter was when his will became more important that the Lord’s will. Luke captured the moment, “Then one of them struck the high priest’s slave and cut off his right ear. But Jesus responded, ‘No more of this!’ And touching his ear, He healed him.” (Luke 22:50-51 HCSB)

What Peter did, pulling out the sward and defending Jesus, seemed to be the right thing to do. Rather than sit idly by, he took action, but the issue came when his will for Jesus became more motivation than God’s will for Jesus. Jesus had come to be the sacrifice, to give up His life for Peter, James, John, the priest’s slave, you, me, etc. Peter stepped in the way and what he did was actually to strike the one who had no power in the situation. The slave was only doing what he was mandated to do but Peter’s defiance for the will of God led to error because Peter simply could not see what God was doing, though Jesus had warned repeatedly that this very day was coming.

I thought about this truth during the winter storm and the life shutdown that follows when more than an inch of snow falls in North Carolina. Are we seeking our will or God’s will? Though something may seem harmless or even admirable, it is nothing if it not aligned with the will of God. Even the most innocent acts can be sinful if the motives for the acts are anything but pure and set on the will of God.

Do you know what never catches the Lord by surprise? The motives of the heart are never a surprise. He knows what we are thinking, what we are seeking to accomplish, and even more importantly, He knows why. The Bible says this, “All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord evaluates the motives.” (Proverbs 16:2 HCSB) What does that mean? God knows deep down why we are doing the things we do. Yes, they may seem right to us, but the question is are they being done for the Lord and according to His will?

So, it comes to the question of why? Is it about Jesus or is it about us? Is it about Jesus’ will or is it more about our way and our will? Peter seemed to do what was right but all along he was wrong, and time revealed where he went wrong. Time will always tell the motives behind what we do, but we can be sure that God already knows. As a year begins to wind down, now is the chance to get it right by doing things God’s way and in accordance with God’s will. A great place to start is by looking at what is being produced by what we are doing. If it is of God, it is producing more of a reflection of God and less of a focus on ourselves.