A man lay in his bed one night contemplating all that was going on in his life, both good and bad. Sleep fled from him as his chest ached from the incredible stress that he was under. As he was pondering this, the Lord came to him and asked, "What's the matter, my child? You seem stressed." "Lord, my life is a mess. Nothing is happening as it should. I've prayed and prayed and you haven't answered my prayers. I'm still waiting, but nothing seems to be changing."

"That is true," said the Lord. "Nothing is changing." The man began to cry. "Why Lord!? I thought you said you would answer my prayers." "I will," replied the Lord. The man seemed confused. "Then why haven't you answered my prayers!? Nothing is happening the way I expected it to!" The Lord smiled. "That is correct. Nothing is happening according to YOUR will, but it is according to MINE."

Consider that when you go about your day. Is your struggles and strifes, your stresses and failures because your day isn't going according to YOUR will, or is the day unfolding according to God's will? When we seek to do things that are outside of God's will, they will always fail. Even our successes, although they will look like victories, will actually be colossal failures.

Unless our wills are perfectly aligned with God's we will see needless stress, heartaches, stress, disappointment, worry, fear, and so many unnecessary emotions. But if we always remember that God is always in control and all that He does is for His honor and His glory, and for our good, and that we are here to do His will and not our own, it makes life actually joyful. Yes, you can have joy in adversity, and happiness in pain if only we are fully surrendered to the Lord and HIS will, rather than our own.

So ask yourself this today. Are you willing to surrender ALL your plans, ALL your possessions, ALL your friends and family, career, success, money, home, car, fame, fortune, and anything else in your life to God? ALL OF IT. Not just a little here and a little there. ALL. OF. IT. Period. Are you willing to die to self, to selfish personal goals, to selfish personal desires, to selfish personal plans? Or pretty much anything selfish?

For most of us the easy answer would be yes. But consider this, anything that is NOT the will of God, that is outside His plans and His will for your life is selfish, period. Even if it doesn't seem that way. Anything that does not include God at the center, and does not put God first, and does not supersede our own will is automatically selfish. True selflessness is dying to self, dying to selfish desires, dying to self will, and giving 100% to Christ.

I agree, it's not easy, but it's necessary. By human nature we live selfish lives. It is completely natural for us to live and do all things with a selfish, self centered viewpoint. That is why we must willingly, and willfully, turn our attention and focus to God and surrender all things to Him. And it must be a minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day willful decision. It can and will never be an automatic action. It must be a constantly willful action.

So, what will your choice be today? Will you willingly surrender all every minute, hour and day to the Lord, crucifying your own will and surrendering all to Him, and taking His will as your own, always putting Him first in everything? I pray you do. But don't think that just because you're a stronger Christian than someone else that you're automatically doing it right. We're failed, flawed human beings, and as such none of us does this perfectly.

Even the best and holiest among us fail daily at this, at surrendering our entire will to God. That is why Jesus said that we must take up our cross DAILY. Clearly He knew that we couldn't sustain our total obedience to Him for very long at any one time, thus He too reminds us that it must be a ongoing, continual, willful act of surrendering our will and desires to God and doing His will in everything, even if it makes no sense, we are to do it. Period. So, what will you do?