Being Made Willing to Be Made Willing

Some thoughts on the power of repentance…

Conviction, though difficult, is sweet. It moves us to repentance, which leads us into freedom in Christ, who nails our sin to the cross so that we bear it no more. One of the things about David, a man after God’s heart, that impacts me the most is his soft heart – his heart to repent when he messes up.

“For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There is no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” - 2 Corinthians 7:10

One of my spiritual leaders once challenged us to pray: “God, make me willing to be made willing, then make me willing.”

There are so many things in our life that are out of line with truth. What the way of the cross and pursuing God and being conformed into His image involves is (in the words of Amy Carmichael) “a chance to die” – that He may live in and through us. And this requires walking in repentance.  

I read a quote several years ago when I first surrendered to Jesus that pierced my heart with conviction and caused me to pray the prayer: “God, make me willing to be made willing, then make me willing.”

This is the quote:

“My Lord, I have mistreated You all my life. I have treated You like a servant. When I wanted You, I called for You; when I was about to engage in something important I beckoned You to come and help me perform my task. I have sought to use You only as a servant to help me in my self-appointed work. I will do so no more. Lord, I give You this body of mine; from my head to my feet, I give it to You. My hands, my limbs, my eyes, my brain; all that I am inside and out, I hand over to You. Live in and through me whatever life You please. You may send this body to Africa… You may blind my eyes, or send me with Your message to Tibet. You may take this body to the Eskimos, or send it to a hospital bed. This body of mine is Yours from this moment on.” – Walter Wilson

I often come to God for the sake of wanting God to do something for me, or because I want a feeling or an experience that will make me feel better, rather than coming to Him just because He is worthy of being worshipped. This quote opened my eyes to what Christianity truly is meant to be about: absolute surrender and obedience to Christ because worthy is the Lamb who was slain. And oh, how I often fall so short of that! But the good news is that Jesus works through our mess and by His grace He empowers us to be made willing to relinquish our grasp of control and open our hands to the Father’s will. Though we may continually harden our heart in stubbornness like the Israelites, God’s love is relentless to pursue us so that He can set us free for freedom! We have a good, good Daddy who cares for us and wants to see us walk into freedom and abundant life, and He will not rest until our salvation comes.

Do we trust His will above our own wants and desires?

This is one of the many questions that has been pounding on my soul.

Is there a limit to my obedience?

There are many limits I realize daily, and I therefore must continue to pray: “God, make me willing to be made willing, then make me willing.”

Not my will, but Yours be done.

That was Jesus’ great moment of surrender to the Father. Jesus trusted that God’s will was supreme and that He had a good, good Father who can be trusted with life itself. Jesus is the Perfect One who only did that which the Father did. He sets an example for us – that we would follow God and submit to His Lordship unto death because we trust Him over all else.

Or Abraham on the mountain, his son in front of him ready to sacrifice upon the altar – talk about surrender and obedience and trusting God!

I pray that we would have the audacity of spirit that Ruth possessed in our pursuit to follow Christ in obedience. “For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” - Ruth 1:16-17

That we would go where the Father leads, that we would live with open-handedness. That we would allow the Spirit of God to take us where our trust is without borders. Because He is worthy of our life that He purchased with His blood.