Thy Will, or My Will

I recently read, or heard, a saying that keeps running through my head. It goes something like this: At the time of judgement, you will have a pretty clear idea of where you are headed based upon 4 little words - "Thy will be done." It is not the words themselves that have such meaning, but rather who is saying them; and to whom. If you are saying to God, "Thy will be done", than you are probably preparing for a long and joyful eternity. If God is saying, "Thy will be done" to you, that is probably a pretty good indication that you have not put him first in your life.

I wrote once before that in my early days of prison ministry, I was disappointed when things didn't flow as we (actually I) had planned. I learned that while it is good to plan, and be prepared, we have to accept God's direction and allow the course of an evening to be changed. Of course one of the challenges is knowing if it is God leading the way, or the enemy leading us astray. Tonight, God led the way!

The plan tonight was that Michael would lead in praise and Royce would deliver the message. Since it was just the three of us, I figured that at some point I would share or lead a prayer. From the beginning of the night, for whatever reason, the men were participating a little more. One of the guys played some keyboards while brother Quentin sang a couple of songs.

Praise went on for a while (longer than usual) and at one point I was handed a note. One of the men was asking for a special prayer for one of his brother's. The brother had been going through some tough times and then had lost his father that morning. Now I know how difficult it is to lose a parent, but I can't imagine how difficult it must be to lose a loved one and not be able to be there because you are locked up. Whether you deserve to be in jail or not, that has got to be painful. I was all set to step up and ask Royce if I could speak the prayer leading into his message. But at the last minute, instead of stepping up to read it, I handed the note to Royce indicating that he should read it.

Now Royce could have pressed me into reading it, or read it himself. Instead, he asked brother John to come up and lead us all in prayer. John sometimes takes keyboard duties when Michael isn't there, but I had never heard him speak at a service. It was heartfelt; it was joyous; it was emotional; but more than anything else, it was obviously God using one of his children to help out his brother(s). By the time John was done tears were streaming down his face and I saw a number of other wet eyes as well. Royce responded as well. Rather than taking his planned sermon, he went into an immediate altar call and followed that powerful moment with a well timed reading of Luke.

Maybe I would have given a nice prayer. Maybe Royce's planned message would have been well received. Those are unknowns. What I do know is that tonight I made the statement, "Thy will be done", and I felt blessed because of it.

Say a prayer for somebody today.