365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 286: Willing Spirit

Willing Spirit

"Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit." (Psalm 51:12 NAS)

My second and last baby just got her driver's license, and suddenly she has lots of errands she needs to run. 

Last weekend, she "needed" to go into town (as we country folk call it) to get lip balm. She came home from her errand very satisfied with her lip balm but very dissatisfied about something that had happened while she was out.

She told me that when she was at a light, getting ready to pull out onto a main road that would lead her toward home, she saw a woman standing on the corner of the intersection. We often see men and women positioned there, holding up signs seeking food or money, and my daughter always notices them. She told me, "I just felt convicted that I should do something." She pulled (safely) into the fast-food restaurant that was easily accessible from the lane she was waiting in and went in to buy a gift card. But they were out. "I was so disappointed," she told me. "I really wanted to be able to give her one."

"Honey," I told her, "I can understand your disappointment, and I'm sorry things worked out that way. But don't you see? You responded to the Spirit's prompting. You obeyed. You had a willing spirit when God convicted you. That was already a win."

This is how it goes, sometimes, when the Willing Spirit convicts our spirits toward action. We want to see the story play out. We want to see a victory...not for ourselves, but for someone else. But when the Spirit prompts us to act, our job is obedience, not the outcome. Our job is response, not the result. This Spirit sustains us, keeps us moving forward, keeps us running the race.

On our page of our own stories as written by the Willing Spirit, faith is the victory. Obedience is the victory. Response is the victory.

And the favor of the Father—"well done, good and faithful servant"—is our prize and crown.