"To much is given, much is required."

Luke 12:48  "From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more." (NASB)

I've always read this verse and associated it with money or resources.  The more you have, the more opportunity you have to pass it on.  And with those opportunities comes the responsibility to wisely share, since all we have comes from and belongs to God.

This week God expanded my perspective on this verse in Luke 12 to include strength.  "Everyone who has been given much, much will be required."

Hello.  My name is Billie Jo.  And I am strong-willed.  Given adversity, my default is to fight.  Given resistance, my default is to push harder.  Given odds not in my favor, my default is to prove those odds wrong.  Nature/nurture.......or the combination.......this is how God wired me.  Good, bad, ugly, fierce, strong.  I have a strong personality that just seems to shadow me.

I'd like to think my walk with the Lord over the last decade has helped me to temper my strong-will.  Or at the very least, acknowledge it and become more disciplined to keep in it check.  But since I am God's-work-in-progress, this side of eternity, I'll always be wired with some degree of a strong-willed default.  Making plans, putting plans into action, motivation to try, and drive to keep trying seem to be second nature for me.

Until this week, I've viewed my strong-will in a completely negative light.  Somewhat of a curse I need to overcome and conquer.  There is truth in that (after all, Dr. James Dobson wrote a book on strong-willed children, of which I also birthed one!).  Strong-will can easily run amuck and wreak havoc when left unchecked and unsubmitted to the Holy Spirit.  Often strong-willed individuals operate in a self-centered mode with single-vision focus.  And strong-willed women, well, that opens a whole other can of worms......

Could I be brave enough, bold enough, or even self-righteous enough, to consider my strong-willed wiring to be a significant piece of God's design and provision for the story He is writing for me?  Could that strong-willed foundation be part of the groundwork laid so that God could build upon it with tough things?  Heavy things?  Hard things?  Has God been strengthening me and pruning me and molding me "for such a [strength] as this"?

"To the one who has been given much [strength], much [strength] will be required."  Certainly that's not a license to plow through life with selfish desires and fight for what is not God's Will.  But what if the strength and strong-willedness that was given to me by God is now being required of me by God?  What if God is not asking me to overcome that strong-will, but to surrender it to Him and allow Him to use for good?

Could this week's small shift in my thinking about Luke 12:48 enable me to stand firm when the seasons get heavy and hard?  What would it look like to believe my God gave me strength so that I could yoke-up with Him and accomplish His Will in my story?  For His Glory?

"To the one who has been entrusted with much [strength], much more [strength] will be asked of him."  I don't have the answers to my questions, but today, I'm willing to believe and trust that God equipped me with a strong-will, knowing He was going to ask me to lean into that power and strength to endure seasons of trial.  Never in my own power and strength, but in His Everlasting power, so that He may be glorified!  Strong-wills becomes even stronger when man submits and God equips.