Hello Again!

Hi Girls! I'm sorry; I know it's been a while since our last post. My life has been crazy with school recently; we are almost out for the summer. Hooray!!!

Anyways, I'm going to be doing a study this month on being Spirit-controlled instead of soul-controlled. This comes from a class I took the past two semesters that has really spoken to my heart and, if you let it, will help you as well.

Today, though, I'm giving a thought I got from this morning's chapel in Luke 5:12-13.

"And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him."

The leper did not beg Jesus to heal him; he did not ask for mercy; he placed himself completely and totally in God's hands.

WHAT IF JESUS HAD SAID "NO"?

The leper gave Jesus full control. How often do we do so? When we pray, we ask God for things such as health, help, and other things. This is not wrong; on the contrary, we are commanded to cast all of our cares upon Him (1 Peter 5:7).

But we are not completely dependent upon Him. We do not trust Him to take care of us no matter what He does. Personally, I believe the leper still would have believed on Jesus had Jesus not healed him. Last year I did a post on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and their determination to praise God no matter what. "But if not" is the key phrase in their story (Daniel 3:18). Just as they were determined to trust God whether or not He delivered them, so was the leper.

Are you willing to trust God no matter what? Do you pray, "Lord, if thou wilt?" or do you pray, "Lord, this is my will," ? God is merciful and compassionate, but how much more so when we do not demand it? He died for us before we had even thought to ask Him to. This is the greatest gift He ever gave. We need to allow Him to work completely in us; we need to be completely dependent upon Him.

- Brianna Davis