Three Practical Keys to Walking in God’s Will In Our Brokenness

I want to start this week’s mini-study/blog with a confession: I’m a broken person. Will anyone else get vulnerable with me and admit to this? Let’s get ourselves off our hands and into His. In praying over this week’s Scripture, I’m reminded how often I’ve chose “My kingdom come, my will be done” instead of His.

To be frank, the reason why I’ve been so struck by this truth in myself is because of someone I love treating me incredibly unkindly recently due to incorrect assumptions. Of course, the beauty is that I’m seeing how Christ suffered. I’m also being reminded not to judge because I know I’m broken and thus making mistakes in all my relationships too.

So where does this leave us? Are you like me and sometimes wonder “Well then, how do I live like Jesus, turning the other cheek and showing love in the midst of this pain?” Maybe you’re the one causing the pain and don't know how to stop because you can’t let go of bitterness, anger or unforgiveness? I’ve been learning how to walk this out more deeply recently. How? By studying the way Jesu's life and words by studying the following three topics.

When considering how to walk out the following three concepts, it’s clear that looking to Jesus’ life provides us the perfect model as well as valuable insights for when there isn’t a 1:1 comparison in the situation. My thought process then is to look at character traits we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us grow in, which will then help us as we keep in step with the Spirit through any situation. For topical studies like this, all of our tools would be helpful, but if you’re on a budget looking where to start, we'd recommend the Verse Map Journal or Verse Mapping templates if you already have a Bible Binder.

 

1. Seek Our Father’s Wisdom: Matthew 6:10 explains the key factor in all this: “your will… your kingdom” If nothing in our lives is supposed to be done for our own selves, but for God’s ultimate glory, then it makes sense to ask Him what He wants us to do in every situation. Before we respond to situations out of emotion or talk to another soul about it, we ought to turn to the Lord. This is hard. I've spend years venting to God about situations and him reminding me to calm down. And you know what? Most of the time either he healed my heart to not be bothered by the issue or changed the situation without me speaking a word. Sometimes He does call us to speak up and speak out into the issues we face. When that is the case, we need to have His wisdom in order to address challenges with grace. Here are verses on this for further study:

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” -John 5:30

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” -John 6:38

“I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” -John 8:28-29

 

2. Cultivate Humility: Jesus is described (and describes himself) as meek and humble in Scripture. When we’re in difficult situations or are fighting our own will against the Lord’s for anything, we must bring our hearts before our King and bow our heads and hearts to His plan. When we’re in that position, recognizing our weakness and his strength, we’re easily moldable to His plans and purposes. We can be like clay in His hands and he can shape us to be able to handle whatever task he builds us for. Without humility, we become hard-hearted, which leads to further brokenness: broken relationships, broken mindsets, broken lives. Let's choose to cultivate a willing spirit to not have our own way and choose His instead. Here are verses on this for further study:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey -Zechariah 9:9

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. -Matthew 11:29

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing  by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! - Philippians 2:5-8

 

3. Create a Life Rhythm of Consistent Prayer: Jesus models for us a key way to live a life centered on our Father and his will. Since I only truly know my own personal heart’s experience ( 1 Corinthians 2:11a says, “For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them?…), I’ll share my prayer rhythm, but I don’t want it to be looked at as “prescriptive” or “holier than thou” so please hear my heart. I’ve been asked this general question before, so I figured this is the time to share. Generally, it’s first thing in the morning, from anywhere to 30 minutes to over an hour and it includes: a time of Scripture reading, study, reflection and prayer. During the day, I’ll talk with God about my day. When I can, I’ll listen to or sing worship songs as I work or walk my dog. Meditation on Scripture is critical for me when my mind wanders or is frazzled. At the end of the day, my husband and I share what God’s teaching us and pray before dinner. Our rhythms will shift depending on the season. My rhythm today is very different from my rhythm when I worked as a nurse for example. That rhythm was faster paced and in some ways more intense. My rhythm 20 years ago is also very different from both these examples. So please take some time to dive into the following verses and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you about how he wants to cultivate a prayer rhythm with him. Here are verses on this for further study:

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." - Mark 1:35

“After dismissing the crowds, Jesus went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray.” Matthew 14:23

“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray.” Luke 5:16

Jesus also prayed both alone and with others in the Garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion (see Matthew 26:36-46 and Mark 14:32-42).

Similar to last week, there is so much more on these topics, we’ve barely even gotten to the beach, let alone put our toes in the water! So I want to invite you all dig into these verses, or even better, please join in our new Verse Mapping plan on the Lord's Prayer with our wonderful teachers on our Facebook community. Please check out our free and private Facebook community linked here: The James Method Project- Committed to Drawing Near