Friday, Sept 6th 2019

The Kitchen Table

Day 29

Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said:  “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ​‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.  Acts 13:13-23

The will of God is something that we do, not just believe or think and talk about.  In the end, it’s something that we do.  If our heart has really been touched and transformed it will show up in what we do and how we do it.  It’s in what we do that we discover the true desires of the heart.  This isn’t a life that we get by works but it is a life that we live by will.  Acts 13:36 says that after David had served God’s purposes in his generation, he passed away.  David accomplished his work because of his will.  We just can’t hide our will, it comes out in what we do, how we talk and where we go.  We know how this works; we must want what Jesus wants and that only happens as we believe and behave in Jesus.  Changing our will requires complete and total surrender to God.  It’s something we will deal with all of our lives but it’s also something God will develop in our of our lives as we trust and obey Him.  Can you imagine a world where everyone does the will of God because everyone desires the will of God?  That’s heaven!  That’s God’s will for here.