Willingness

Lately I've found myself in a few conversations surrounding the concept of willingness to let God do ____. I shared that often when I see people fail I get "judgementally" upset that they "must" not be doing more/enough or otherwise they would've succeeded! The irony I realized is that they likely were "doing more" which led to their failure because in fact they should've been "doing less!" God gives us strength to do the things He wants us to do... not the things we think we should be doing.

My part is to be willing and open. His part is to make things happen. I need to pray for peace instead of asking God to answer specific prayer requests (like give me a new best friend instead of having peace with the friends I have). Once I'm willing God has more freedom in how He can choose to answer the desires of my heart. When I act out of willingness I build less resentments because God can answer more prayers because I'm open to more possibilities! When I'm willing I can hear better too; I can listen for the words that person needs to hear and speak them. When I'm willing, I can see more areas where I need to grow and make the changes I need to in order to improve. And for somethings, they shouldn't be improved. I need to ask God to remove my character defects, my judgemental and selfish ways, my pride and lack of compassion because these don't need to just be improved upon. These things need to go away.