God’s Will: Loading…
“What is God’s will for my life?”
“How will I know?”
“What if I miss it?”
These are the questions of faith we wrestle with. But let me offer a perspective change —
What if God’s will for our lives wasn’t “out there”? Maybe instead of thinking God has hidden our secret purpose from us and sent us on a constant search to find it, we try to open our minds and hearts to what is happening in our day-to-day. If we don’t, we might miss God’s presence and what He is asking of us in the most ordinary (and challenging) moments.
Awakening to God’s will is about embracing the present reality.
What if… Everything in your life unfolding in each moment is God’s will. Do we approach it with a sense of surrender or fight our circumstances to match our own will?
This is hard to accept when we don’t like what is happening in our present reality.
He Leadeth Me, by Fr. Walter Ciszek, is a story of a man’s extraordinary testament of faith. Fr. Ciszek spent twenty-three agonizing years in Soviet prisons and the labor camps of Siberia.
He found interior peace in the darkest circumstances by asking, “What can ultimately trouble the soul that accepts every moment of every day as a gift from the hands of God and strives always to do his will?” The answer was: Nothing. Nothing could trouble His soul if everything — good and bad — came from God. He knew he was exactly where he needed to be, even if he didn’t necessarily like it.
A family member’s illness, singleness, a job loss — can we view this as a gift from God’s hands? We may not be able to understand or see the goodness in something happening in the present moment (because we’re too close to it and we’re not God), but that doesn’t mean God isn’t using it.
It’s easy to romanticize a big call to action and heroic mission, but could God’s will be doing the dishes joyfully, going to work, and loving the people around you? We can overcomplicate it by thinking we aren’t following God’s will unless we have entered into our vocation, cured homelessness, or climbed Mt. Everest.
But Scripture lays out God’s will for our lives very clearly. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells us:
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Do you continually rejoice, pray, and give thanks, even when it’s hard and you are surrounded by uncertainty and doubt?
We can rest in God’s love and presence, knowing His will for each of us is to trust Him in all circumstances. We embrace our present reality.
What are your thoughts about God’s will for your life? What is your experience with accepting the present reality? Share in the comments.
