Our oldest grandson was just a toddler when that evening our daughter called him to come to the table for dinner. She was taken aback when she heard him say, “No, Mommy, I’m not going to come. I’m going to play now.” As you can well imagine, that day he learned the meaning of the scripture verse that says, “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord” (Colossians 3:20).

When she told me about this, I felt a twinge of guilt. How many times have I said that to God when He spoke to my heart about something He wanted me to do? “No, Lord, I want to do something else.” You see, there’s another power in my life besides God—a strong one; it’s my own will, and while I hate to admit it, many times my will and God’s will are not the same thing.

This battle for my own way is the essence of sin. Isaiah wrote, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). Our own way as opposed to God’s way!

The human will is a very powerful force. With my will I can choose to forgive or hold a grudge, to draw close to the Lord or to keep Him at a distance, to praise Him or to complain. I can choose to pray or to find my own answers, to have faith or to fear, to live life in my own strength or in His strength.

Every day I need to come to the Lord and say, “What do You want me to do today?” Romans chapter 12 tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord. But as someone pointed out, the problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar. That’s why I find I need to present myself to the Lord every day.

Which will it be today for you—God’s will or yours?

Have you prayed Matthew 6:10 today?