Not Their Will But Thine Be Done

By: Amber McEwen

“Not my will, but Thine be done,” is a hard prayer to pray.  Aligning our will with God’s will is not always the easiest thing in the world to do.  And sometimes just being okay with whatever He desires for our life can shake us down to our very core.  But what about our peers?  What about our culture?  Sometimes we have to say, “Not their will, but Thine be done.”

I was reading about the birth of John the Baptist this morning.  When Elizabeth gave birth, actually eight days after, her friends and family came to see the new miracle baby.  They told her she should name the baby boy after his father.  Why?  Because it made sense!  It was a perfectly reasonable thing to expect!

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where friends and family are telling you that you should do things one way or say things in another way?  And their advice makes sense.  But in your heart of hearts you believe that God is calling you to a different purpose.  Zechariah had seen and heard an angel who told him what to name his child.  We don’t have that today.  But we can spend time in the Word and in prayer, and we will hear those still, small whispers from the Spirit.  That doesn’t mean that God will whisper what He wants us to name our children.  Nor does it mean that we will hear guidance on every single decision that we make throughout the day.  But it does mean that we have a purpose in this life, and that purpose is to glorify God in all we say and do.  Sometimes that means letting go of what we want.  Sometimes it means going against culture and traditional practices.  All the time it means spending all of our time drawing closer to our Father, and listening for those still, small whispers.