“Here I am, Lord!”

Psalm 40:6-8 (NIV)—6) Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. 7) Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll. 8) I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is written within my heart.”

These verses applied to Jesus in Hebrews 10:5-10. Jesus also portrayed this attitude of obeying and serving God in verses John 4:34; 5:30. He is our perfect role model.

The prophet Samuel told Saul in 1 Samuel 15:22(NIV)—“To obey is better than sacrifice.”

It would be wonderful if every Christian’s motto was, “Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.” We please God immensely when we make Him number one in our life; and come to Him with loving obedience as an ultimate goal for life.

This is what our true relationship with God means. It is a statement of faith–knowing what we have learned through His Word and believing it to be the absolute truth. This comes from knowing all that is good, beautiful and loving from God alone.

Submitting to God’s will is like entering a new life of freedom that is beyond our imagination. We are to say these words –“Thy will be done, not mine”– joyfully and courageously with a passionate desire to serve Him with our words and deeds because of His intimate love for us. A pure sign of a mature Christian is humility.

Knowing His loving and supporting grace makes it easy for us to commit our lives to do His will towards all of His creation, His children, our brothers and sisters. To know God is to honor life, to confront evil with good, to heal the sick and to comfort the afflicted, to forgive the sinner, to suffer, if necessary, for the common good. There is nothing more liberating than the will of God.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31 (NIV), “I die every day—I mean that, brothers–….

Dying to self- dying to the flesh is a choice we need to make for ourselves daily. Jesus asks us to pick up our cross and follow Him. Luke 14:27(NKJV)—“And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

When we finally come to know this in the depths of our souls, may our constant personal prayer be: “Father God, give me the grace of a mature faith to die to self, pick up my cross, and follow You; so that I might make my life a living prayer, ‘Not my will, Lord, but Thy will be done’. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”