"But I Don't Want to..."

"But I don't want to!"

How many times a day does a mother of young children hear those words?  If your house is anything like mine, the number is high...especially from the toddlers.  Mom says, "It's time to go lay down." "But I don't want to..."  Mom says, "It's time to go inside."  "But I don't want to..."  Mom says, "Give the toy back to your brother."  "But I don't want to..."  Can't you just hear the little (or sometimes not so little in volume!) voice in response?  I know I can!  My typical response is, "I didn't ask if you wanted to, you just need to do it."  Maybe that's not the best way to handle it, but it's what usually comes out!

I wonder if we sound like frustrated toddlers to God sometimes.  We are studying and spending time in His Word and something stands out to us.  What we're reading sounds like something God commands us to do or is a principle that convicts us of a certain activity in our lives.  We feel that we ought to change, but...here comes that little voice...we respond "I don't want to."  How does God respond to this?  How does this make Him feel?  Well, I know that God loves us and He always has our best interest in mind.  Consider I John 4:9-10:

"In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."  (NKJV)

 How can we respond in such a way to a God who loves us so much that He watched His innocent Son endure the punishment and death that we deserve?  How can we say, "But I don't want to...," when we know He loves us so much?  We are much like toddlers to God as young Christians and hopefully we mature past that.  Of course, He is hurt, but He allows us to make our own choices and decide for ourselves whether or not we will obey.  I know I have responded this way before and still do it at times.  Our sinful nature pulls at us and our own desires create that same old response, "But I don't want to..."

Perhaps if we remember how much it hurts us when our children fight against doing as they are told and how much it hurts us to see our children have difficult situations in their lives because they didn't do as they were told, then we can understand a small bit of how our Heavenly Father feels when we protest His commands and put off following His instructions to us.  We love our children so much, but our Heavenly Father loves us, His children, so much that He was willing to watch His own Son endure such a painful death in our stead!  Is this not proof enough that He has our best interest in mind when He gives us instruction in His Word?

Just as we feel that our children love and respect us when they follow our instruction, so does God when we do as He has instructed in His Word.  In fact, we are told that this is the way we demonstrate our love for God.  I John 5:3 says:

"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.  And His commandments are not burdensome."

God does not give us commands to wear us out or make us feel burdened.  He does so because He has our best interest at heart and He wants to take care of us, just as we want to take care of our own children!  May we remember the motivation behind God's commands to us and the way we are told we demonstrate our love for God the next time we are tempted to say, "But I don't want to..."