Jesus said “All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” We often tend to be beset with doubts about a possible course of action, confused about decisions we need to take. We dither this way and that, and if we seek the advice of somebody we believe is wise, we get more confused. Jesus never had this problem. He was always sure about things. He was always confident in everything that he did. Now you might say, yeah, but he was Jesus, and we are we. Yes, but we might learn a few things if we examine how he got his confidence, and today's passage offers us more than a few clues. Jesus says, "All those the Father gives me WILL come to me, and whoever comes to me I WILL never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my WILL but to do the WILL of him who sent me. And this is the WILL of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's WILL is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I WILL raise them up at the last day." That's seven times the word "will" is used in a single passage! The key to confidence is trusting God's will. This, in turn, leads to obedience to God's will. Jesus says that his will is to do the will of he who sent him: his Father! So, he would do whatever his Father willed him to do. We often tend to be arrogant, thinking we are wiser than God. Whenever we choose or make a decision that is in opposition to God's will, we declare that we know better. Isn't this true? So, how can we ever do things with total certainty or confidence? There will always be pressure on us, no? There was no pressure on Jesus. He trusted his Father implicitly and simply obeyed him. It's what I call a brainless exercise. We don't have to break our heads figuring out what to do because all the figuring out has already been done by God; we just have to obey! Brainless, ya? Jesus understood this. He knew his Father would send people his way; all he had to do were two things. One, not drive them away. Two, ensure that they weren't lost. We see this happening right through the gospels. Remember Zaccheus? Remember the Samaritan woman who came to draw water from the well? Remember the sinful woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears? Remember the Gentile woman who came to plead with Jesus for her daughter's health? There are so many examples of people in the Bible believing in and accepting Jesus, but it wasn't just a matter of them believing in him — Jesus believed in them too. And he was able to do this because he knew that everyone who came to him had been given to him by God. All he had to do was accept them. We need to accept those that come to us, believing that they have been sent to us by God. Let us be that person who says, like Jesus, "I will never drive you away."
