God’s Will and Your Will will Clash

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Mat. 16:21 “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.”

In this verse, the Lord told His disciples that He will going to suffer and be killed. But then, on the following verse, Peter told Him “Lord you are not going to have difficulty, you are not going to have rejection, you are not going to have trouble and strife and struggling. No that’s not going to happen to you Lord.” And the Lord Jesus had to take him aside and rebuke him and say “You haven’t got God’s mind at the moment, you are just thinking like a man.” And this is how we think isn’t it? We would all like not to have any trouble or strife or struggles or anything like that in this life. But that’s man’s thoughts. These are the thoughts of prosperity Gospel preachers. And yet God’s thoughts are that there is something really beneficial through all of our struggles. Something that He can actually produce, and that is why the Lord Jesus in this context said that “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.” It’s quite likely that we are not going to be literally crucified, like the Lord was. Yet he was saying You still need to take up that cross, you still need at times to go down that path of difficulty, darkness and trial. Paths where maybe God’s will and your will clash! You want to go one way and God is asking you to go this way. That is the context of this scripture.

Charles Spurgeon pretty summarizes it this way:

“Doth that man love his Lord who would be willing to see Jesus wearing a crown of thorns while for himself he craves a chaplet of laurel? Shall Jesus ascend to His throne by the cross and do we expect to be carried there on the shoulders of applauding crowds? Be not so vain in your imagination, count ye the cost and if you are not willing to bear Christ’s cross go away to your farm and your merchandise and make the most of them but only let me whisper this in your ear. “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loose his own soul?”