But I Don’t Want To!

@Marcie_Bridges

Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18

In our first years of marriage my husband had a saying about what love is he often quoted.

“Love is doing what you don’t want to do, because you want to do it.”

What?! Okay, let me get this straight. Love is doing what you DON’T want to do because you WANT to?

It took me several years to fully understand but eventually I got it. Love is doing something for someone else that you don’t really want to do but you do it because you love them.

For example: My husband enjoys going to record stores. I’m not very fond of them because well, let’s face it. Very few Christian albums are mixed in with all of the rock, country, and broadway records. I am usually pretty bored in these stores; however, I go because he asked me to. So using our formula above: I don’t want to go the record stores but I do go because I want to please him and love him and spend time with him.

How many times does God ask us to do something we don’t want to do but because we love God and want to obey Him, we do it anyway?

In Acts 9:1-19 Saul is on a mission to persecute the church and anyone who was “of the Way”. But he is interrupted in His journey by a strong light and he falls on His face realizing it is the Lord. As the story goes, Saul is blinded and is led to Damascus where he stays for 3 days and nights. On the final day, God asks a man named Ananias to go visit Saul and help him receive his sight back. What is Ananias’s answer?

“Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.””

Why do I get the feeling Ananias did not want to go? Do you get that feeling too?

But in the next few verses he does go and Saul, whose name changes to Paul, becomes one of the greatest preachers for God on earth.

Perhaps you’re being asked to start back at the beginning of a project? Or you need to write a proposal for your upcoming conference? Maybe you were given edits on your novel and you feel overwhelmed at the amount of stuff the editor has marked? Whatever it is, God has given you an opportunity to trust Him and to do the hard thing.

Sometimes we don’t want to do the thing that will give us what we want. Sometimes we don’t want to do the hard stuff. Sometimes we just want to receive the reward without the work.

Or maybe, just maybe, we do what we don’t want to do because we want to do it.

Then God gives the increase and we receive more out of our obedience to Him than we could ever imagine.

 

Trusting Jesus,
Marcie

 

Marcie Bridges is the Author Care Representative

for Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas

authorcare@lighthousepublishingofthecarolinas.com

www.lpcbooks.com  and  www.shoplpc.com