What You Don’t Want To Do
It is a fundamental principle that sometimes in life in order to get what we want; we might have to do something that we do not want to do. This is a principle that applies to so many different day-to-day scenarios. For example, to get in shape, you are going to have to work out when you do not want to, to buy a house, you are going to have to save money when you would rather be spending it.
A beautiful example of someone doing what they did not want to do, to get what they wanted can be taken from Luke 20:40-43:
“When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation” And when was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.” And then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.”
Frankly, Jesus did not want to go to the cross, in the text we can see that His heart was heavy as He contemplated what was to come. We often forget that Jesus, in His ultimate majesty as God, was also fully man, which meant that He felt human emotions. Yet, despite His concern, He says to the Father, “not My will but Yours be done.” Jesus could have easily prevented Himself from going to the Cross, but because His desire for us was so potent, He did what He didn’t want to do to get what He wanted, which is a relationship with us.
Our hedonistic society tells us that a mark of success is being able to do what you want, when you want to do it and how you want to do it. However, the problem with this mentality is that people will do what they want, and get what they thought they wanted but later realise that this is not actually the case. Take the example of Judas. He betrayed Jesus knowing that he was going to receive money for it. When he received the money, he realised those pieces of silver were not worth the crime he had just committed. Consequently, he took his own life. Judas is a clear example of someone doing what they wanted, thinking that it would fulfil them but only to be left empty and hopeless.
Many times the problem with doing exactly what you want to do without a second thought is that you fail to see the bigger picture. Often we sacrifice tomorrow’s accomplishments for today’s satisfaction. Judas could not see the bigger picture. He sacrificed an eternal relationship with Jesus for pieces of silver. We ought to be cautious that we do not follow this path as well. Do not sacrifice your relationship with God for something fickle and temporary.
It’s hard but doing what we don’t want to do will indeed help us to get what we want. We read of people in the Bible who did amazing things and felt the power and presence of God. We desire these very experiences, yet we do not want to do what they did. We want God to move like He did for Esther, but we don’t want to fast like she did. We want God to bless all our future descendants and us, but we do not have faith like Abraham had.
When Jesus was faced with His fate, He sought God. He prayed and He remembered that it was not His will but God’s that had to be fulfilled. When we are faced with the the option of taking the easy way out, we need to remember Jesus and the example that He set when He went to the cross for us, despite knowing the torture that He would endure. Hopefully, we will never have to endure anything like that but in our day to day lives let us be like Jesus and do what we don’t want to do, to do what we want to do, whether it’s exercising, saving money, praying or waiting on God.