Several months ago, I explained to my 4 year old daughter that when she asks Jesus into her heart He becomes her brother and God becomes her Father. She becomes a joint-heir in a royal inheritance with Christ.
Just last night, she brought up the fact that she is Jesus’ sister and that she asked Him into her heart. She turned to her 6 year old brother and said, “Well did you ask him? Don’t you want to be Jesus’ brother?”. He wasn’t so interested.
Funny enough, she quickly confessed as the conversation went on that she would not want to live up in Heaven if God did not give her a baby sister (we are days away from delivering a new baby brother). The mind of a child. So precious and simple. But how similar is it to ours?
She wants things to pan out her way. She thinks she wants a baby sister and her mind is set on it. Her heart is probably too. Something that I know is that God’s will is already put into action. God’s will was to give us a boy and she doesn’t like that too much.
Is that how our attitudes are toward God’s will? When we ask for something, and we think it is what is best, do we have the attitude of “not wanting to go be with God in Heaven” then? I do wonder if that is how people walk away from a relationship with the Lord. His will was done instead of ours and therefore, out of a rebellious heart, we hand back our adoption papers and forfeit the glorious, heavenly inheritance.
Our Lord Jesus did not come down to earth to fulfill every single want that we have. He didn’t come to make our earthly lives perfect. We are expected to have challenges and trials. God’s will for our lives is never to hand things to us. It is to equip us for those times when we don’t get what we want, when things don’t pan out the way we think it should, or when His will does not align with ours. Jesus Christ came to empower us to see those trials in life through to the Cross so that we can utter the words as our Savior did “not my will but Yours be done” with sincerity of heart.
I will admit my daughter’s 4-year-old mind faith is a selfish seed which will need watering of faith, trials, and especially the Holy Spirit. Don’t fall into the selfish faith. Allow the trials to sprout your trust in the Lord, running the roots deep, so that you are able to see the power in which the Holy Spirit can equip you. The kind of power that He has promised you. Have faith in that.