"I Can't Force A Person"

 Devotional Prayer:  Truth's I Must Face - Pt 1

Lord I come with an open and willing heart understanding that I only control the decisions I make.  I cannot decide for others.  They must decide for themselves.  Your Holy Spirit is the only one that can, “convict someone of sin” (John 16:8).  I can preach, pray, model, talk, scare, scream, and jump up and down, but only you can reach the heart. However, you have made a rule that you will not force a person to change.  We must “come” to you when we are in need of help.  We must come to you and ask you to help us carry our heavy loads and burdens (Matthew 11:28).  I must work through challenges with people today that I do not control.  I cannot force them but I can pray for them and love them. Give them the grace to see what they need to see.  If they don’t see give me the grace to understand, but to also draw strong lines that are necessary to move forward.

I must never take a stance of judgmental insensitivity.  I must never be unfairly critical.  I must never be selfish and only willing to see the world though my eyes.  So, I pray today for you to give me a special ability to embrace, love and forgive. Show me how to climb to higher levels of thought and vision. Give me the grace to release people I cannot force to think like me. I must not make people I love or work with my spiritual or philosophical slaves. They must be loved for their views and approaches to life.  Those views may be flawed but I must never try to force them in a direction that takes away all their rights.  I may be forced to engage them and set boundaries for them, but I must not enslave them and take away their power of choice.

My goal is to serve you Lord and do my best to serve and love those I work and live with.  I cannot force a person to do anything.  But, I can attempt to love and release a person (I Corinthians 13) the same way you love and release me.  In hindsight, my life would have been easier if I were not so determined to have things my way.  But, you knew that forcing me would never have brought me to where I am today; “faithfully, willfully, and eternally” committed to you.

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