But I Don't Want To (Joshua 5:5-6)

But I don't want to!  How many times have we heard that saying?  Better yet, how many times have we said that to God.  God's children did in the wilderness and stayed there for 40 years.  It was disobedience that put them there and obedience that brought them out.  Sadly to say, it's the same for us today.

The Christian life is not easy and involves many battles and difficult choices.  Because we are in a battle against the World, the Flesh and the Devil, our battles are against that which is on the outside of us and also what is within us.  Our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.  Because of this, we do not know our heart and many times cannot even know when we are being lured away by our flesh.

After crossing Jordan, the Lord commanded Joshua to circumcise the males.  This circumcision took place after obedience.  According to scripture, circumcision not only occurs on the body, but also in the heart.  The Lord declares that his people will be circumcised and have a new heart (Jeremiah 4:3, Ezekiel 36:26).  The Lord had the Israelites in Joshua's day circumcised because their heart had changed as evidenced by them following The Lord.  Obedience came first and a changed heart followed.  This sequence is God's plan.  It first occurred in your life at salvation when you obeyed the gospel as told by the Holy Spirit (Romans 10:16, 2 Thessalonians 1:8).  After obeying the gospel, The Lord gave you a new heart with new desires.  Those desires were in agreement with his desires.

Many people balk at following The Lord because he may be leading them to do something that they do not want to do.  What we must understand is that when we obey The Lord and do as he leads us, he will do a work in our hearts and change our desires about it.  This obedience though must be based on pleasing The Lord and not the result of fear, shame, embarrassment, desire for gain or recognition or any other motivation.  When we obey, he will do the work in our heart that is needed.

So, instead if waiting to follow God until he puts a desire in your heart, follow him and get the desire that you need.