© 2014 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

Do you control your own will? Honest self-evaluation will prove you don’t. Did you ever desire unhealthy foods? Did your desires ever cause you to break a New Year’s resolution early in the year? Did you ever have inappropriate desires toward someone, though you knew it was wrong? Has your peace of mind ever been shattered by desiring evil upon someone who has wronged you? In all of these situations, who controls your will?

The Apostle Paul struggled with this issue. He said, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Romans 7:18-19). Who is behind this internal will of ours which so constantly works against what we know is right?

Jesus explained the answer to this question for the Scribes and Pharisees who had rejected Him. He said, “Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not” (John 8:43-45).

Ah! So their wills were under Satan’s control! All who have not been redeemed by God the Son, Jesus Christ, are in this predicament. Though Christ offered Himself in a bloody sacrificial crucifixion at Calvary, the wills of the unsaved are in helpless captivity to Satan, himself, and to their own fleshy desires. They cannot believe the truth of Christ! Only Christ can defeat the captivity of Satan and give an unsaved person new life, repentance, and faith in the Lamb of God who gave Himself “a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

Has Christ opened your heart and given you a new will which seeks to please Him? If so thank Him. Otherwise, read God’s Word, the Bible, because, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

 

 

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