The Holy Spirit achieves this inward cure by merging the will of the redeemed man with His own, This is not accomplished at one stroke. There must be, it is true, some kind of over-all surrender of the will to Christ before any work of grace can be done, but the full mergence of every part of the life with the life of God in the Spirit is likely to be a longer process than we in our creature impatience would wish. The most advanced soul may be shocked and chagrined to discover some private area within his life where he had been, unknown to himself, acting as lord and proprietor of that which he thought he had given to God. It is the work of the in-living Spirit to point out these moral discrepancies and correct them. He does not, as is sometimes said, “break” the human will, but He does invade it and bring it gently to a joyous union with the will of God.
To will the will of God is to do more than give unprotesting consent to it; it is rather to choose God’s will with positive determination. As the work of God advances the Christian finds himself free to choose whatever he will, and he gladly chooses the will of God as his highest conceivable good. Such a man has found life’s highest goal. He has been placed beyond the little disappointments that plague the rest of men. Whatever happens to him is the will of God for him and that is just what he most ardently desires. But it is only fair to state that this condition is one not reached by many of the busy Christians of our busy times. Until it is reached, however, the Christian’s peace cannot be complete. There must be still a certain inward controversy, a sense of spiritual disquiet that poisons our joy and greatly reduces our power.
Verse
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. Ephesians 3:16
Thought
To will the will of God is to do more than give unprotesting consent to it; it is rather to choose God’s will with positive determination.
Prayer
Lord, help us to merge our wills with Your will and to choose Your will with positive, complete determination.