I’m a whiner. My mother said she could hear my sharp voice above all the others on the playground. When I was a little older and whined about homework, she would shake her finger at me and remind me that everyone else in my class had the same work to do. Then I would buckle down and do it without another complaint. I knew what the shaking finger implied.
Jesus was not a whiner. In the situation recorded in Mark 7, it is interesting that what Jesus wanted and what happened were two different things. It would seem His wants would either be in accord with God’s will or His wants would even determine God’s will. But not the case here. They are actually in opposition to one another. Jesus wanted something other than what really happened.
Was that a sin? No. We know Jesus lived a sinless life. So it was not wrong for Jesus to want something to happen (in this case, some quiet private time) that did not happen (“He could not escape notice”).
But holding on to His want by pouting, showing anger, or refusing to embrace the real opportunity before Him would have been wrong. Or to have accepted it grudgingly.
Jesus was flexible. He was able to lay aside His want and trust God that the reality was His will, and He would provide the inner strength for Jesus to face the needs of the moment.
So, too, I must lay aside my wants and accept the reality of my situation when they don’t match, trusting God for His timing and provision.
How about you? Is it time for a reality check?
(Picture courtesy of pixabay.)
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Ginny Merritt lives with her husband Ray in a small New York town on the Erie Canal. They recently retired from thirty-four years in the ministry. They are renovating a home built around 1860 and are enjoying being closer to their daughter, son, and two grandsons. Ginny has published two books through Journeyforth, a division of BJU Press: an early reader chapter book, A Ram for Isaac, and a children’s novel, The Window in the Wall.