JUST BE 30-DAY CHALLENGE
Just BE Willing – Day Seventeen
Webster says ‘Willing’ means cheerfully consenting or ready; inclined
Synonyms: agreeable, amenable, prone, responsible, eager, active, ready, pleased, prepared, inclined
GOD says in Romans 12:14-21, ‘Speak blessing, not cursing, over those who reject and persecute you. Celebrate with those who celebrate and weep with those who grieve. Live happily together in a spirit of harmony and be as mindful of another’s worth as you are your own. Don’t live with a lofty mindset, thinking you are too important to serve others, but be willing to do menial tasks and identify with those who are humble minded. Don’t be smug or even think for one moment that you know it all. Never hold a grudge or try to get even but plan your life around the noblest way to benefit others. Do your best to live as everybody’s friend. Beloved, don’t be obsessed with taking revenge, but leave that to God’s righteous justice. If your enemy is hungry, buy him lunch! Win him over with kindness. For your surprising generosity will awaken his conscience, and God will reward you with favor. Never let evil defeat you but defeat evil with good (TPT).’
Buried in the midst of paragraph after paragraph of suggestions for ‘Transformed Relationships’ from the Apostle Paul in his love letter to Rome, comes a word I found fascinating, ‘be willing’. I realized it needed to be our next action word if for no other purpose than for me to inscribe it on my heart. But as I began to transcribe the appropriate verse(s) for this purpose, I realized everything I was reading is about willingness. In fact, I must share the additional verses so you will see even more of what I mean. Bear with me, as it should always be God’s Word that leads us; not our own. I believe there is careful instruction for rebirthing fatigued and frustrated relationships into vibrant and victorious friendships that will stand the test of time.
In Romans 12:9-13, it reads, ‘Let the inner movement of your heart always be to love one another, and never play the role of an actor wearing a mask. Despise evil and embrace everything that is good and virtuous. Be devoted to tenderly loving your fellow believers as members of one family. Try to outdo yourselves in respect and honor of one another. Be enthusiastic to serve the Lord, keeping your passion toward him boiling hot! Radiate with the glow of the Holy Spirit and let him fill you with excitement as you serve him. Let this hope burst forth within you, releasing a continual joy. Don’t give up in time of trouble but commune with God at all times. Take a constant interest in the needs of God’s beloved people and respond by helping them. And eagerly welcome people as guests into your home (TPT).’
It all comes down to our being willing. Every single command, instruction, encouragement, written in these verses, is not possible or sustainable if there is not willingness that backs them up. Then I turn to another instructor, Webster, and it is curious because he combines words like cheerful and consenting, agreeable, active and ready in relation to ‘willing’. I then realize that not one of these instructions is easy. Being willing might cost me more than I bargained to pay as I hope toward translating relationship into friendship, bringing the monkey on my back instead to the companion I embrace.
It isn’t easy to celebrate someone else’s victory nor to identify with their struggle. How about not giving up when things get sticky with a loved one and how difficult is it to not right someone else’s wrong or seek your own method of justice when someone runs you over, especially when a friend has trampled your feelings into the dirt. We want to feed our enemies and those who have wronged us a knuckle sandwich; not buy them lunch! And, what? bless the one who has fashioned an arm’s length distance in this transaction that used to feel like a relationship? You got to be kidding me, right?!
I encourage you today, let’s, as ladies, revamp what I hear women say all the time. I actually say it myself. Often. I don’t have many girls with whom I make friends. Some women are caddy, competitive, secretive, meddlesome, knife-bearing, slanderous, hurtful. Let’s change that auspice and try to follow Paul’s tips for just a season to see if maybe our relationships can be transformed into lifelong bonds that cannot be severed or broken. Because if you are like me, and we can be honest, we know what it is like to be the walking wounded; to have been more wounded by Christian sisters than by most other relationships in our lives. Sisters, it is only going to be possible if we are willing. That’s where it first begins: willingness.
Day 17 Challenge: Try to be the friend you need. Chances are great that there is another Christian woman in your circle of acquaintances who needs a friend like you. Try to reach out to one new person today.
