Willingness or reluctance – the decision is yours and mine – and they both find their home in the center of our heart. I could say for you to ask yourself what kind of heart you have, but I’ve found over my lifetime that my heart can be deceitful and I can’t always trust it to be true. Therefore, I follow God’s Word in Psalm 26:2 and always ask God to examine my heart and show me what changes I need to make to be in line with His will for my life. I can also tell you that it’s during my quiet prayerful times with Jesus that I get the reproofs, correction, encouragement, and directions I need for my life. It’s also in these times that God brings to my mind situations, people, and countries He wants me to pray for.  I encourage you to have a willing heart to pray more fervently each day.

A willing heart is ready to act – ready to obey the will of God. A reluctant heart hesitates and holds back, as to doubt, to pause or waver. The person who wavers is one who fluctuates in their opinions and decisions. James 1:8 calls it being double-minded and it means to be unstable. In other words, a double-minded person has trouble making a decision and sticking with it; they are always changing their mind about a decision they made or should make. They may seem strong in faith in the good times but when the rough times come, they waver and change their confession and quite possibly even their beliefs. A person who is willing but is also reluctant is one who has difficulty keeping their faith strong and obeying God, mainly because this wavering carries over into their decision to read their Bible and pray. The only way we can be strong in our faith is to hear faith. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes from continually hearing the Word of God. We all need to be continually growing in our faith in God.  Growing in faith means to be made strong in faith.

A willing heart determines many things in our lives: whether we are selfish or generous; self-absorbed or care about others; slothful or diligent; rebellious or submission, disobedient or obedient. However, to just be willing isn’t enough to enjoy all that God has for us. Willingness alone won’t take any action; and we could easily become lukewarm – which God warns us against in Revelation 3:15-16. We must put action to our willingness in order to reap the full benefits from our Covenant with God, which in through Jesus. However, obedience alone also has its problems because it sets us up to work with an attitude that we can do it all by ourselves, in our own strength. If only obedient, we could become resentful, hold a grudge toward others and even towards God; similarly, as to what happened to the older son mentioned in Luke 15:11-31. He was obedient to work for his father but his heart was bitter towards his younger brother.

Isaiah 1:19 teaches us that it is when we are willing AND obedient that we eat the good of the land.

We cannot fully be willing and obedient until our heart is submissive to God. We must be willing in our heart to submit our will to God’s will before we will actually obey what God asks of us. You could say it this way: a willing heart begets a submissive heart and a submissive heart begets an obedient heart. Think of it in terms of a circle, the three go together, over-lapping one another and each strengthening to other two.

Let’s be clear to understand that a willing heart is just the beginning of our relationship with our Lord. We have to be willing to acknowledge that we need a Savior before we make the decision to accept Jesus as our Savior. A submissive heart will yield and surrender their own thoughts and opinions to the Word of God. An obedient heart will do the will of God; living according to what God expects of us.

I encourage you, and myself, to be willing, submissive and obedient to God’s will for our lives.