One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. ~Luke 6:12-16 (NIV)
Have you ever stopped to think about why Jesus would pick Judas to be His disciple? Scripture tells us He went out to the mountainside and spent all night praying to God and the next morning went and picked the very person that would betray Him to be close to Him every day. Luke 6:12-16 can teach us a lot about our prayer lives because it is apparent Jesus was not praying for His will, but God’s. When you pray do you pray for God’s will or your own? Can you embrace God’s will as you embrace Him knowing He sees a bigger picture than you? We all know that can be very hard to do, but the truth is we can either embrace God’s will now or later because God’s will always trumps our will. Many people say God is more concerned about our character than our comfort and to some degree that is true. But that doesn’t mean God does not care about our comfort. God cares about every aspect of our lives. He just knows that without a challenge we will see no victory. He knows to build our faith we have to exercise our faith. He knows that adversity builds our character. The Lord wants us to grow up into the people He has created us to be just like we want our children to grow up to be good and loving people but that means there are going to be some struggles.
We have to accept the fact that sometimes in life there will be a Judas and there will be betrayals and there will be disappointments and there will be pain. But that doesn't mean God's will for us isn't good. We can't ask God to use us and then let protecting ourselves from any suffering be more important than His plan. Don’t worry if it seems like your dreams have been trumped by Gods hand because that only happens when He has a better dream for you. God doesn’t look at our lives the same way we do, and we have to learn to trust Him. He has a much better perspective! Isaiah 53 is referred to as the suffering servant passage, and when Jesus suffered, the bible says that the will of God prospered in His hand. In our heart of hearts, don’t we truly want the will of God to prosper in our hands? Isn’t it more important to love others than to hold on to that hurt? Is our witness to the lost in this world important enough to hold on to the promise through the storm so we can gain the victory that so many need to see to give them hope? Paul teaches us in 2 Corinthians 1:5 “For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ”. (NIV) Take comfort that no matter what you are going through today, God sees and He will make His will prosper in your hand as you submit to it. God is the light at the end of every tunnel!
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After He has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by His knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. ~Isaiah 53:10-11 (NIV)
Can you recall a time when you struggled with God being Lord of the outcome only to find He pulled it all of better than you could have ever dreamed?
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