“For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will.” John 6:38
DEVOTION – by Troy Gambrell:
Picture a soldier that enters the battlefield at his general’s command. The soldier and the general likely have the same desired outcome, but the soldier on the front lines may have a different strategy. The soldier’s strategy might be one that seems less risky for him, but his commitment to his general and his fellow soldiers might cause him to say “Sir, yes sir”.
When Jesus is speaking to this crowd of people, they are begging Him for miracles and for physical bread, but Jesus is doing everything to get them to see that He came for a different reason than their physical needs. Jesus wouldn’t be sidetracked from the command and desires of His Father. Faith Family, can you see it? The crowd was begging for physical blessing, but God knows the depths of our hearts and the true needs of His children. So what is the Father’s will? If you move down to verse 40, we see that His Father’s will is “that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life.”
There is incredible gravity in what Jesus is saying here. The fact that He would give up His will to do the will of the Father tells us a couple things about His character. Jesus is selfless. Everything about His life was a mirror to reflect the heart of the Father. When we see the actions and attitude of Jesus, we are looking directly at the heart of God. Jesus is committed. He knows the mission and he knows what the Father has called Him to. Jesus is trustworthy. He didn’t waiver from His commitment which tells us that we can trust the plans that He has for us.
I don’t think it is that Jesus wanted to do His own thing, but maybe the way He went about it would have been different. We see this during Holy Week as Jesus is preparing to go to the cross and he prays to His Father “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Jesus prayed for a different way within the same will. Was there a different way that fulfilled the same will? Don’t you think that His Father would have chosen a different way than to give His son to be crucified? God knew the WAY that you and I would be saved and Jesus trusted the WILL of His Father every step of that WAY.
“I am Thy servant to do Thy will, and that will is sweeter to me than position or riches or fame, and I choose it above all things on Earth or in Heaven.” A.W. Tozer
