"I Will"

1925

Among all of earth's creation man alone is able to will. Two of the mightiest words that he can utter are: "I Will." Man is never really and truly man until he uses his right and power to will.

But man's power to will is limited. By the use of his will he may lengthen his life span, but he cannot will not to die physically. Some have tried it, but in due time they went the way of all the earth. Others may try it, but none will succeed in overcoming this "last enemy of man" by defying him. Death has been overcome, and may be overcome by all, but victory lies in surrendering our wills to Him who alone was able to conquer death and the grave.

We can only will what we have power to accomplish. We might wish that each day had sixty hours, so that we could do all that we so much desire to do, but we cannot will these extra hours to our days. Most parents wish that their children would follow safe paths, but no parent can will his child's life.

In point of time our wills are even more limited. Jesus showed the inability of man to will the future when he spoke of the man who was in trouble because his fields brought forth so much. The man said that he knew what he would do. He would pull down his barns and build bigger ones. But Jesus said: "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be?" James spoke of the foolishness of the man who planned on the morrow to go into the city and trade and get gain when he could not know what the morrow would bring forth. And James' conclusion was that all men ought to say: "If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."

We can say, as did the Prodigal, "I will arise, and go to my father." This is an act which can be performed this present moment. We can say, "I will not commit this sin"; or "I will begin this service for the Master now." In such matters our will is supreme, but it is only supreme if we will to do it now. No one can will to become a Christian at some future date. The young man who says, "I will accept Christ when I am ready to settle down," is not willing to become a Christian. By his decision he wills to reject Christ.

Christ's servants are those who will to serve Him: He has no other kind. We may feel that He it was Who chose us, and not we who chose Him; yet, until we will to belong to Him we will never know of His having chosen us. He calls for laborers for His vineyard, and He commands us to go and preach the gospel to all nations, but no one is laboring for Him in any field except those who will to do His will. Christ has no conscript laborers; He has no hirelings, working merely for the pay; He has no geniuses or master minds, working in His cause because of the glory such work will bring to them. All His laborers belong to one and the same class, and all are on an absolute equality. They are those who will to do the Master's will.

Our wills are limited, but in all that is of vital worth to us they are supreme. We need to strengthen them by exercising them Within the sphere allotted to us for their exercise. When we stand at the end of life's day we cannot make excuses for unperformed tasks by saying that we meant to do them. Meaning to do them sometime is willing not to do them in the only time that God has given us.

We think and speak of the neglected fields in rural America. But God has not neglected them. He called, but those whom He called willed not to go. He is calling still. We can serve Him in these fields now. It is all a matter of will. In this, as in all other matters, the mightiest use that we can make of our wills is to say, "Lord, not my will, but Thine."

—The Sunday School World, Oct. 1925, p. 470.