the means to transform my soul 3

One of Dallas Willard’s key teachings is we are not in charge of outcomes. We partner with Jesus, arranging and rearranging our lives to learn from him and work with him any way possible, but leaving outcomes in his hands.

This is such a freeing way of looking at life. Like the biblical parables of farming, we plant and wait. We can’t manipulate the seed to try to tell it “You need to yield lots of grain!” We simply follow the faithful work Jesus is working through us and watch.

This takes a large dose of humility.

1 Peter 5:5-7 (NLT)  
    You younger men, accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, serve each other in humility, for

        "God sets himself against the proud,
            but he shows favor to the humble."

[6] So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in his good time he will honor you. [7] Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.

Dallas tells of some of pastors who dread doing hospital visits. The reason? They pray with the patients, but rarely do they see a “healing.” Dallas always tells them, “You are not in charge of the outcomes.”

God is not doing great things in the world to make it possible for us to receive accolades. It’s not as if he is saying,

“This morning I am going to make sure that everyone knows how wonderful Dana is. I want all eyes on him. Let’s see, what can I do to make him look better?”

It is enough to know God has me in mind at all. Yet, it is more than that. I know he does think I am precious, regardless of what others think. I know I am the “apple of his eye,” in spite of my unworthiness. His confidence in me makes me want to give my life to him. Sinful as I am, it is in bits and pieces, but I am moving in his direction, yoked to Jesus.  






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