For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. – Philippians 2:13

Lewis Sperry Chafer was an American theologian who co-founded the Dallas Theological Seminary and served as its first president. Chafer wrote, “A yieldedness to the will of God is not demonstrated by some one particular issue: it is rather having taken the will of God as the rule of one’s life. To be in the will of God is simply being willing to do His will without reference to any particular thing he may choose. It is reflecting His will to be final, even before we know what He may wish to do.“

“It is therefore not a question of being willing to do some one thing; it is a question of being willing to do anything, when, where and how it may seem best in His heart of love. It is taking the normal and natural position of child-like trust which has already consented to the wish of the Father even before anything of the outworking of His wish is revealed.”

Today’s verse speaks of the person who has truly yielded their will to that of the Father. Through your submissive obedience, God can further His work in and through you. St. Alphonsus Ligouri said, “The man who follows his own will independently of God’s is guilty of a kind of idolatry. Instead of adoring God’s will, he, in a certain sense, adores his own.”

Yield to the leading of the Lord and relinquish the idea that you are your own best guide. Pray that the people of the United States would learn to place their confidence in God, the only One who knows and holds the future. Ask that believers serving in Congress also submit to and follow the will of God for the nation.