The Will of God

All faith comes down to this - Thy will be done.

The life of faith is rooted in the realization that we are completely dependent on God. The universe is not an accident. All creation belongs to God. This is the first affirmation of faith. It is the foundation of everything else. It carries the disturbing consequence that our life is not our own. Whether we like it or not, everything about us comes from God and belongs to him. We cannot so much as draw a breath except by the hand of God. Before we ever come to recognize our dependence on God, it is there. And even if we deny it or disbelieve it, we cannot change it.

To acknowledge that we belong to God does not come easy. This first demand of faith challenges our deepest human instincts. From my earliest consciousness I have been the center of my world. And even though I profess to believe in God, I resist to the very core of my being the consequence of this belief - that I must make him the Lord of my life and give myself entirely to doing his will.

Yet it is in doing God's will that our life finds its purpose and reaches its fulfillment. God created us to love us and to draw us to himself in everlasting love. And though we may devote our human energies to every other sort of thing, his love alone will bring us happiness. We can be fulfilled only by becoming what God created us to be. The journey of faith begins in earnest only when we acknowledge that God's will must be the single guiding force in our life.

God's will for each of us is unique. We are each a singular expression of his love. He created each of us with a special place in his world, with a special calling, with special relationships to nurture and roles to fulfill. We cannot answer someone else's calling. We cannot undertake what God intends someone else to do. And so in prayerful reflection we must discern God's will for us. We must watch and pray, that we may see the signs he gives us and hear him when he speaks.

The first test of discernment is the test of love. God's will is always about love. We spend almost our entire life doing things other than love, yet the only purpose of our life is to grow in love so that we can become one with God. When we are drawn out of ourselves to seek the good of others, we are moving in the direction of God's will. When we withdraw into ourselves and seek our own interests, we move away from God. Love cannot be held in reserve. We can only possess love when we give it away. Only by losing ourselves in love do we find God's will for us.

God reveals his will to us one day at a time. God always gives enough bread for the day's journey. We do not have to plan for tomorrow, because God has already provided for it. We must watch for what God wants us to do today. God will send someone into my life today who will be an opportunity for grace. This grace will be my nourishment on the journey of faith. If I miss this opportunity, I will go hungry another day.

God's will is never more than we can handle. If we are overwhelmed by the demands of life, we are undertaking things God does not intend us to do. We are not each called upon to save the world. God did that once and for all when he became man in Jesus. We are called upon to be vessels of God's love in the world. God fills us with as much love as we can hold and sends us into the world to bring this love to others. We must bear this treasure of love reverently, and share it as generously as we can.

God's will often spoils our plans. We have to be ready when God speaks. Sometime when you least expect it you may be faced with a defining moment in your life, a unique moment of grace that will determine the direction of your life. You must not be so busy with other things that you miss it. The plans we map out for ourselves are not always part of God's plan. We must be prepared to let go of our plans when God reveals his.

God's will is discerned in prayer. If we do not go to the silence of an inner room, and there wait for God to speak, we will never know his will. To hear the word of God, we must develop the habit of listening. All prayer, like all faith, can be distilled into one affirmation - Thy will be done. When all else is reduced to silence, this prayer must rise in our hearts. Then as we open ourselves to his love, he will speak.

Read another reflection on God's will.

A meditation on Jesus as the model of doing God's will.