Put Aside to Establish

I love the sentence in today’s reading (Hebrews 10) where it says: He sets aside the first to establish the second. Just before it, we have Jesus saying, “Here I am, I have come to do Your will.” There’s Jesus, then there’s His will. And Jesus set aside the first (Himself, His desires, His will) to establish the second (God and His will).

It would be nice if that could be said of us. That we might say, “Here I am. But I set me aside. My life, my desires, my will. I set me aside, because I have come to do Your will, God. I want to establish You, Your Kingdom, and Your will, through my life.”

That probably sounds good to most of us, but the reality is that most won’t actually live that way. And the difficulty is that living that way means living by faith, but there’s always a reason to shrink back from living by faith. Typically it’s our selfishness (that we don’t really put God before ourselves), or our fear (that we don’t really trust God). Which is why the chapter ends with the challenge to not shrink back, but to live by faith, which is what pleases God.

In what area of your life are you setting aside the second (God’s will) to establish the first (yourself) because of selfishness or fear, and you need to stop shrinking back and start living by faith in a way that puts God first?