Who is Lord?

Day 36

Who is Lord?

 

In that first garden long ago everything spoken into being by God was held together by His word. Everything existed because He willed for it to exist. We stand in this world today because He designed it so. Everything from the dawn of time has always been a delicate ecosystem held in balance by God’s word and will.

But then a whispering voice slithered into all the goodness of God’s good world, and twisting God’s words, enticed humankind to take themselves out of the ecosystem of obedience and trust in God’s word and will. The first human beings chose their will over God’s, their way over God’s way, the mixed presence of good and evil over the loving presence of a good God. And the ecosystem of loving obedience and trust became a no-mans land in a one sided battle of wills with humankind hurling over the trenches “not your will but mine be done”.

So this statement Jesus makes sitting on this hillside, surrounded by human beings trapped within their whirling battle of wills, raises once more the most important question any human being will ever face:

Who is Lord?

‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.’

Matthew 7: 21

Who is Lord- not in your rhetoric but in your life?

Its never been about what we say or how eloquently or passionately we say it. God is more interested in us living as though He is Lord than talking as though He is Lord.

This Kingdom has just one King. And we cannot enter it except by active obedience to the will of this King.

Nowhere does it say that living in submission to God’s will will be easy, comfortable or popular. Indeed, in the beatitudes Jesus has already said that His Kingdom belongs to the poor and persecuted…

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…

…Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’

Matthew 5:3 and 10-12

Submitting to the Lordship of Christ is not a popular choice among the dominions of darkness. Reclaiming this world for light is a constant battle with the dark, with the most fraught battle-ground being the human heart: Its where that first battle was fought and lost all those years ago in that first garden, and where the battle for every human soul is fought every day during our existence on this earth.

The battle for the human heart is won or lost in our ability to live in trusting submission to our Heavenly father; To live wholeheartedly ‘Not my will but Yours be done’.

Jesus knows where this battleground is. And with these mountainside words He is reclaiming it. Having taught us first to pray it…

 “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.”

Matthew 6:9-10

…now He teaches us to live it in everything we do. Jesus gives us the command to live in His Kingdom in obedience

‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.’

Matthew 7: 21

But both the truth and confidence behind Jesus words here is the deep knowledge (that in this moment on the mountainside had not yet been revealed to humankind) that we can only fully live in His Kingdom with the life of His spirit at work within us.

We have fallen so far from the ecosystem of obedient trust in our Heavenly Father that we no longer know what His will is or how to live it with more than our lip service.

Jesus knows as He speaks these words this day that He himself will become the white flag in the war negotiating a surrender between our battling will and God’s good will.

Jesus own will will not falter in the garden called Gethsemane when faced by the choice between the mixed tree and the tree of life, between living in the ecosystem of loving obedient trust in His heavenly Father and His very  own will to live.

The books of Matthew and Mark record that in that garden He prayed the same prayer three times…

“Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Mark 14:35

“Yet not as I will, but as you will.”  Matthew 26:39

“yet not my will, but yours be done.” Luke 22:42

Where Eve and Adam and every human being from them to us had lived ‘Not your will but mine…’ Jesus prayed and then soon after lived the opposite. By dying.

He chose the cross. Against every desire, every emotion, every inclination, every feeling He had, He chose God’s way. Not His own, “yet not my will, but yours be done.” When Jesus gave Himself over fully to the will of God He nailed His will fully to the cross.

God’s Kingdom comes on earth when His will is done on earth (Matthew 6:9-10). With every breath filled word in that garden, every syllable spoken out loud ‘your will not mine be done’ Jesus knew He was speaking God’s Kingdom into existence. 

Because of Jesus’ commitment to undo the failure of the first humans by living wholeheartedly in submission to God’s word, His spirit is now available to us to empower us to do the same.

And that Holy Spirit releases and strengthens us to say wholeheartedly to our loving Heavenly Father ‘not my will by Yours be done’ and then walk out and live our words, living like we belong to His heavenly Kingdom coming on earth as it is in Heaven.

Because we do.

 

 

 

Journaling the Journey

There is only one Lord. And we show that we are submitted to Him, not by calling His name but by doing His will.

Reflect on Jesus’ prayer “your kingdom come, your will be done,” which He later echoes in Gethsemane with “not my will but yours be done”.

Are there any areas in your life where you sense you cannot pray this prayer ‘not my will but yours be done’ wholeheartedly? Name these.

List the areas in your life that you sense God is calling you to trust Him in and submit further to His Lordship.

 

Today’s mountainside photograph was taken on Sugarloaf Mountain in Wales, UK.