Take My Will

“Take my will and make it Thine, it shall be no longer mine.” I’ve sung those words dozens of times, but every so often, the Lord will allow or send a situation into my life that makes me take a step back and say, “Do I really mean that?”

Surrendering our will to God can be a difficult thing. We may hold back out of fear that His will is different than ours; that giving up to Him may involve us in suffering or adversity. Yet, I believe that yielding our will to Him is the bedrock of all surrender. Our will is part of us, and it involves the deepest fears, hopes, dreams, and treasures of our heart. When we yield our wills to His, we are really relinquishing to Him everything that we are and have.

And here I bring within my trembling hand,
This will of mine, a thing that seemeth small;
But Thou alone, O Lord, can understand, 
That when I yield Thee this, I yield mine all.
                                      ~ Anonymous

Ultimately, giving up my will to Christ comes down to how much I trust Him. Do I believe that my way is best, or His? Do I believe that His plans are perfect, or mine? Do I believe that He loves me or not? So many times I’ve held back in fear, yet He has tenderly urged me on with His gentle call, “Trust Me.” And I find peace as I rest in Him!

Christ’s Example: Surrender

Christ left us an example of surrender to His Father’s will. He knelt there in that garden of Gethsemane, facing unimaginable pain, humiliation, death—He faced the cross. I fear that for us, familiarity with the story sometimes dims our realization of the depth of Christ’s submission. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him (Hebrews 5:7-9).

And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground (Luke 22:41-44).

We see the humanity of Christ in His strong crying and tears! Have you ever begged God, “I don’t want to go through this?” So did your Savior. Yet, though His Father heard Him, His will remained for His Son to go to that cross. Jesus had already committed to doing His Father’s will: “Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second (Hebrews 10:9).”

His purpose for being here was God’s will. Though our Lord did not want to go through the cross, yet He surrendered His will to His Father’s. Even in agony. And I am thankful, aren’t you? I have forgiveness and eternal life because He prayed, “Not my will but Thine,” and went to that cross.

Take a moment and let this impact you. And then ask yourself if the servant is greater than their Lord? There is a special fellowship with Christ when we surrender our wills, even with “strong crying and tears,” to the Father. We can’t yield in our own strength, but it is possible in the strength of Jesus Christ.

We need to come to the place where God’s will becomes more important to us than our own. Where we trust Him so much that we place our all in His hands. What I want is not the most important thing. The most important thing is what God wants. His purposes are above my comprehension. Am I willing to exchange my dreams, my hopes, my plans, and my desires for His? Do I trust that His will is best?

Christ’s Example: Delighting

And He is calling you too, dear friend. Not only to submission, but to delighting. Psalm 40:8 is the Old Testament cross-reference to Hebrews 10:9, and it’s prophetic of Christ. “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” Not only was the Lord Jesus surrendered to His Father’s will—He delighted to do His Father’s will!

Does that mean Jesus enjoyed the cross? Of course not. And sometimes God’s will is very different than ours—and does involve suffering or pain. Delighting is an attitude of our heart towards God’s will which involves glad, voluntary surrender. His plans, His desires, may be different from mine—but if I delight in Him, I’ll choose His will, holding nothing back.

The only way we can delight to do His will is if we love Him above anything else. We may not enjoy our circumstances, but in them, we’ll be able to embrace God’s will and find our joy in Him! His will can be the desire of our heart, far and above beyond our own—and exchanging our will for His can be an act of worship, wherein we declare His worthiness!

The Lord is teaching me to truly surrender. Not in word alone, but genuinely in heart. It’s my desire to have a heart which so loves my Savior, that I willingly trust and yield to Him in all things. May we be able to sing—honestly—“Take my will and make it Thine, it shall be no longer mine.” For it is not about you or me; it’s all about Him.