Hi, this is Erin Michele, and welcome to steps to trusting at steps to trusting it is our goal to meet you where you are in your faith journey and encourage you to continue to take steps to trusting the Lord more fully.  Hi everyone. Thanks for joining me today.   we’re going to be talking about having a willing heart.  We started this conversation last week with Sandi Sadako. [00:00:29]

Today we’re going to be talking about what a willing heart looks like. And I say it like that because willingness could point to many different actions, but a willing heart is a softened heart, or a pure heart.

[00:00:43] Let’s start our conversation by looking at Psalm 51:10-12.

[00:00:50] Create in me a pure heart. Oh God, you guys. I don’t even know if I can read this without singing it. This is a song we sang all the time when I was young.

[00:01:01] Create, in me a clean heart. Oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. created me a clean heart, oh God. And renew a right spirit within me. I want to sing it for you guys, but the song is from a different version.

[00:01:33] So let me read that for you guys I’m looking at NIV,

[00:01:36] ” create in me a pure heart. Oh God. And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy spirit from me, restore unto me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. “

[00:01:53] The Psalmist David is crying out and asking for God’s willingness in his life. And he’s tying that with a pure heart.

[00:02:02] He asks God to help him be willing. He saw his own heart and he knew that he needed God to change it. To change him, to make him willing. David knew this about himself because David knew what was in the hearts of people.

[00:02:18] I want to jump to Luke 13, starting in verse 34. This is Jesus talking here. The title of this section in my Bible says, Jesus laments over Jerusalem.

[00:02:31] And here Jesus talks about willingness or lack thereof in people’s hearts.

[00:02:37] Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. You who kill the prophets and stone. Those sent to you. How often have long to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”

[00:02:51] Jesus talks about the lack of willingness and David in his time already knew this was in the hearts of people. He knew that he needed God to create in him a clean heart.

[00:03:02] This topic of willingness has often come up in a discipleship group that I participated in.

[00:03:08] And I feel like it often comes up when we’re talking about sharing our faith and talking about who God is to other people.

[00:03:15] Often when we hear someone talk about sharing our faith or talking about who God is and what God is doing in your life, the first reaction is I’m scared, or I can’t do that.  Often, there’s not that instant willingness of saying yes, I want to do that.

[00:03:33] Sometimes willingness has to start with a step that is more simple than that. So, we talked about searching our hearts and being honest with saying, I don’t feel willing to take that step right now and searching to see if there is a desire to be willing.

[00:03:52] It’s so interesting to think about how, even just the desire to say, I would like to be like that, is almost as if it’s a seed of God growing willingness in our hearts. God plants it in us, but we get to decide if we’ll let that seed of willingness grow into willing actions. It’s not the natural growth in people. This doesn’t just happen.  It’s God working in us and equipping us to have a willingness in our hearts.

[00:04:23] I couldn’t decide today guys, if I was going to talk about willingness or being equipped and the more I looked at, both of those words, I was seeing how they go together. I was seeing how when the Bible says that we will be equipped for every good work.

[00:04:37] That when he equips us, he also equips us with willingness. He changes our heart, cleans our heart, to a point where we desire to do what God desires of us.

[00:04:50] Let’s look at a passage about equipping. It’s from Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20 and 21. May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant, brought back from the dead, the Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep equip you with everything good for doing his will. And may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. “

[00:05:18] Guys, in this passage there’s a willingness for us to, do his will, but he’s equipped us for it. he gives us the willingness to take those steps. When I read that. The Lord Jesus will equip you with everything good for doing his will.

[00:05:36] I think I even need the desire to do that. I even need something within me in my heart that says, yes, I want to do God’s will. And I feel like it draws me to look at the condition of my heart.

[00:05:49] If we were to ask the question, are you willing? The ending could be many, many things.  Are you willing to give up your time? Are you willing to give up your money? Are you willing to make this decision? Are you willing to move? Are you willing to speak up? Are you willing to be silent? Are you willing to share? Are you willing to give? Are you willing to love?

[00:06:14] I see that there is a common denominator. In the willingness, there is a heart positioned towards the will of God. And I found this so interesting actually in one of the recent shows, I was talking about how our faith relies on God’s faithfulness. And although those words are so similar, faith and faithfulness, it took me a long time, to connect those things. And it changed my faith when I realized that my faith does not rely on myself, but on God’s faithfulness. 

[00:06:47] Just this week, I felt as if I had a similar realization between these two similar sounding words, willing and will. Willingness is connected to the will of the person or their desires, a willing spirit or a willing heart would set aside their own will or strong desire for the will of another. A willing spirit, a willing heart would be focused on seeking after God’s will and not our own.

[00:07:16] I don’t know that I had made those connections before that having a willingness to follow God is a surrendering of my own will and a desiring to step into God’s will.

[00:07:29] As I was contemplating this idea of will and willingness, here are some things I wrote down. Willingness is the opposite of selfishness. Selfishness is to want my own desires to seek my own will, but willingness concerns my heart position, a surrendering of my desires to be willing before God looks like doing his will. Not earning, not demanding, but willing. Guys. Our will is involved in being willing. It’s a change of wills, a change of hearts, a change of spirit. Like David cried out. Give me a willing spirit to sustain me.

[00:08:09] This opens up a whole bunch of questions for me. Are we willing to follow his will? Are we willing to live as he calls us, are we willing to rely on the spirit? Are we willing to give up our will and our desires for his will and his desires?

[00:08:27] If you’re like me, you want to start asking questions about performance? Like, am I willing to be obedient? Am I willing to follow and do the law? And for those of you that are feeling that tension, there is a show coming about performance, where we will be talking about those type of questions. It’s coming up in two weeks.

[00:08:49] But I just want to plant a little seed here to say, willingness to obey the law is not because we have to keep the law. God’s laws and regulations are not for us to follow and earn our way to him. Instead we follow and we obey because we are motivated by God’s love.

[00:09:09] We’ll dig in more to the ideas of performance and earning and talking about the Holy spirit working in us starting in the upcoming show about performance, which is scheduled to air in two weeks.

[00:09:23] But continuing with willingness, there has to be a willingness in us to yield to God’s will in order for us to have fruit in our lives.

[00:09:36] I want you guys to look at another passage with me. It’s from first Chronicles 28:9. And again, it’s actually David talking. He’s talking to his son, Solomon, who will become King. He says, “and you, my son, Solomon acknowledge the God of your father and serve him with whole hearted devotion and a willing mind.

[00:09:58] For the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Consider now for the Lord has chosen you to build a temple in the sanctuary, be strong and do the work.”

[00:10:17] Here David is talking about having a willing mind. But he continues to tie it with the heart. He says, ” serve him with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind.”

[00:10:29] He’s giving him the task to build the temple of the Lord, but he’s not just saying, be willing to build the temple. He’s saying, serve God with whole hearted devotion and a willing mind. He tells him God knows everything in his heart. He knows all his motives. And he tells Solomon, if he seeks God, he will be found by him. This is so striking to me because it is showing the heart position. It’s saying, seek God. It’s saying, set your heart and your mind on him. Be willing to follow after him.

[00:11:05] At the end of this chapter Chronicles 28, David continues to urge Solomon to be willing and also the officials and the assemblies. He urges them to be willing in 29, verse five, he says now who is willing to consecrate himself to the Lord today.

[00:11:24] Verse six, it says the leaders of families, the officials of tribes of Israel’s, the commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, and the officials in charge of the King’s work gave willingly. They gave toward the work of the temple of God. Continues to talk about what they gave.

[00:11:41] And in verse nine, it says “the people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, where they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord, David, the King. Also, rejoiced, greatly.”

[00:11:56] Let’s jump ahead.

[00:11:57] First Chronicles 29:18. Oh Lord God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever. And keep their hearts loyal to you and give my son Solomon wholehearted devotion.

[00:12:14] David is praying that the people’s hearts would remain willing, willing to give sacrifice.

[00:12:22] And when we think about what they were doing, they were giving to the temple, they were taking action without anything, holding them back. They were sacrificing, they were giving something up.

[00:12:34] There will be times in our lives where we will be asked to give something, to give up something, to sacrifice. Sometimes that’s just our comfort zone. Sometimes it’s just giving up what feels secure. I feel secure to not go outside of parameters and share my faith with people that might feel uncomfortable or think differently of me because they hear about my faith. This makes me think of a time in my life where I realized I wasn’t willing to do something. And I had to make a choice and make a decision. If I was going to let God work willingness in my heart.

[00:13:12] It started like this: my grandmother had passed away. When I talked to all the people from church and I told them, she was a Christian and I know where she is. So, it’s hard to lose my grandmother. It’s hard to lose my grandmother and I’m grieving and I’m sad, but there is a greater joy. Then I was talking to a mom of one of my daughter’s friends. And I told her we were going home for the funeral and as she expressed her sadness for me, I just said, thank you.

[00:13:45] I didn’t relay she’s a Christian and I know she’s in heaven. I didn’t speak the truth that I knew in my heart because it was uncomfortable.

[00:13:53] There were some other things like that going on in my life at the time.  Actually, one of the questions that I have received most in my life has to do with my twins. I found that I would be asked the question does twins run in your family?  Or how did you find out that you were having twins? And as I went to relay the story, to my Christian friends, I would lay out all the pieces of God’s working and tell them how I saw God working. And as I would relay the story to other people, it was almost as if it was lucky, how it all lined up.

[00:14:28] And I realized that I had to make a choice. Was I going to be willing to step outside of my comfort zone and to be who God has made me to be to speak the truth that I know that he has taught me? That baby step of willingness in my life was to say, I have to decide, am I going to speak the truth?  God had to work a willingness in me to be bold. And I’ll tell you those first couple of times that I shared that story and said how grateful I was for God’s working in the whole situation, it was very hard.  Now that’s just how I tell the story, because that’s the truth of the story.

[00:15:08] God worked a willingness in me and gave me an opportunity over and over to answer of his faithfulness and his grace and mercy and working in my life.

[00:15:19] So when I look at the idea of having a willing heart, the actions of a willing heart probably won’t look the same for everyone, but God sees our hearts. He knows our hearts. He knows what’s going on in us.

[00:15:34] So, what does a willing heart look like? What are the actions of a willing heart? and that’s where it’s actually really confusing.

[00:15:45] As I was looking at Solomon and I was looking at how David prayed for him to have a willing mind and to have be wholehearted and how he was connecting the heart and the will. I found a little story about David in first Chronicles, 28 verse two, it says “David rose to his feet and said, listen to me, my brothers and my people.

[00:16:07] I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the arc of the covenant of the Lord for the footstool of our God. And I made plans to build it. But God said to me, you are not to build the house for my name because you are a warrior and have shed blood.”

[00:16:25] This exact situation is recounted by Solomon in second Chronicles 6:7. He says ” my father, David had it in his heart to build a temple for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. But the Lord said to my father, because it was in your heart to build a temple for my name.

[00:16:47] You did well to have this in your heart. Nevertheless, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son. Who is your own flesh and blood, he is the one will build the temple for my name.”

[00:17:00] This was a good desire. But this was actually, albeit looking like it was a thing for God and a pure motive. God says, no, that’s not for you to do.

[00:17:13] And David was willing. David was willing to build the temple, but David showed his willingness actually by obeying to not build the temple. And Solomon was the one who built the temple.

[00:17:26] I read this to you because I want you guys to look at it with me. That willingness is not the specific action. Willingness is the heart. David had it in his heart to seek after God and seeking after God meant that he was told, even though you have this good desire, it’s not for you to do. And he was willing to listen and obey what God’s will was.

[00:17:50] Friends. I hope that this encourages you to seek out what God has for you. To be reminded that a willing heart is something that God works in us and yet we participate. We’ll be talking more about this also in shows to come, but I believe that the first step to willingness is asking God to work willingness in us.

[00:18:13] As I mentioned before we joke around and one of the discipleship groups that I’ve been in, where we’ve discussed and said, I want to want to be willing.

[00:18:24] It’s not even I’m willing or I want to be willing, but I know I should be willing and I want that I would want to be willing. I know that sounds silly but God can grow willingness in our hearts. It starts with desiring what he wants for us seeking him.

[00:18:43] Like David told Solomon that if we seek him, he will be found by us. We can seek him, even in our willingness. We can turn to him and reveal our hearts to him and tell him, Lord, I am not willing. And right now, I don’t even want to do that willing thing, but I want to want to do what you have for me.

[00:19:07] Going back to my situation, my desire was my own comfort. My desire was to not feel weird. Or have someone think differently of me and you know what God worked in my heart so I would ask what’s more important? Is it more important that I set my heart on God’s will, his kingdom, spreading his word, sharing his faithfulness, or is it more important that I’m comfortable?

[00:19:37] Often it is easy to look for our comfort. It’s easy to desire, comfort. But often we are forsaking God’s will for our own comfort.

[00:19:49] Friend, are you willing to look at the places in your life that you may be seeking your own comfort or your own will instead of seeking the will of God?

[00:20:01] Are there places in your life that you are holding back from the Lord?

[00:20:05] Could these words be spoken to you?

[00:20:08] ” How often I have longed to gather your children together as hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you are not willing.”

[00:20:18] Lord make us willing.

[00:20:20] So, what does willingness look like? willingness is a heart condition. It’s a clean heart and seeking God. It’s a whole heart, living wholeheartedly for the Lord instead of a divided heart. A divided heart that seeks our will and our desires, and wants to give just a piece to the Lord. But willingness is shown in a heart that is not divided. It is wholly seeking after the Lord and it is given to us by the Lord.

[00:20:51] We can cry out to the Lord to give it to us. Just like David in Psalm 51. ” Created me a pure heart. Oh God. And renew a steadfast spirit within me, cast me not away from your presence. Take not your Holy spirit from me, restore unto me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.”

[00:21:16] Oh, father, that you would work willingness in our hearts. That you would make us a people wholeheartedly seeking after you. Forgive us father, for where we have sought our own desires, where we have traded your will for ours.

[00:21:31] Lord God, forgive us. Give us the strength to set aside, to surrender our wills to you. Lord, that we would be willing to do your will. That our hearts would be focused on you clean steadfast, Lord God sustain us with a willing spirit. It’s in Jesus’ name that I pray. Amen.

[00:21:53] Friends as always. I’m so glad you joined us today. If you enjoyed the show, please like subscribe and share with a friend.

[00:22:01] I started doing something new, adding some journaling questions in the show notes. So, if you are interested in having some journaling questions, go and check that out. There is also a link to a free journaling resource that you can sign up on my website to receive, to help you consider and think about what your next step to trusting more fully might look like.

[00:22:24] I hope you join us back here next time until then. I want to leave you with this encouragement from Ephesians two 10   for we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Friends. I am praying that God would give you a willing spirit and whole hearted devotion to Him as you keep on stepping.