We pray each day, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done.” Jesus tells us, “whoever does the will of my Father is brother and sister to me.” (Matthew 12:50). And he himself, that terrible night in the garden prayed, “Not my will, but thine be done.”
So the question is, what does God want? What is His will for us?
Here begins the long story of the human race and the tragic results of not doing God’s will. Remember the Garden with Adam and Eve. God’s will was filled with many wonderful commands: “be fertile and multiply (have lots of kids!)” “Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and every living thing.” (Genesis 1:26) God’s wish is that we be master of all creation.
However . . . our dominion was to be exercised in obedience to God’s will. “You are free to eat of any of the trees in the garden but do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” You know the story; we disobeyed.
Why? We had everything we could want. A wonderful partner for life, food galore, and best of all . . . friendship with our Maker. What happened to make us disobey? Adam and Eve say they were “tricked”. The Tempter (aka. the devil) got them thinking that God’s way was unfair. “You won’t die,” said the serpent. “You will become like God!” And God doesn’t want you to be his equal, we could add.
Ever since then, we humans have had this feeling that God is not to be trusted; that He wants to keep us under His thumb! Somehow we got it into our heads that God was a grumpy taskmaster that didn’t want us to be happy or free. When we take the time to even think about it, we feel God saying, “Don’t do that or that or that!” God is no fun!
This is all part of the devil’s trick. He wants to turn us away from God’s plan for us; to doubt that He even cares about us. (I bet you’ve had these feelings).
And this is exactly why God sent His Son to show us who He is, and to correct our understanding of God. Jesus spent his whole life trying to get us to see what God is like. He tells us to call Him “Father”. Parable after para- ble tell of His love for us, His forgiveness, the plan to share His divine nature with by accepting Christ into our life. God is offering us Eternal Life!
Now, we need to ask a question here. It’s about your REAL happiness. Haven’t you found that when you put yourself aside to meet the needs of others, when you’ve been generous with your time, your kindness, your truthfulness, that you discover a happiness “the world cannot take away”? It’s a feeling that might be described as “clean” or “right with God” or (if you’re a theologian!) “integral”. It’s a happiness that brings peace and gentleness and self control.
But let’s go back to that garden where Jesus, filled with fear, surrenders to his Father’s will. It certainly was not a moment of peace and happiness. It was a moment of TRUST and OBEDIENCE. Jesus trusted in His Father’s plan of salvation for humankind. He trusted that, somehow, through the selfless offering of his life on the cross, there would be the manifestation of GOD WHO IS LOVE.
True to His Son’s word, God the Father raised Christ from the dead to be “the first fruits of all who have died . . so too shall all be brought to life.” 1 Corinthians 15: 20-23
Life with God forever in Christ. How’s that for happy? God’s will is our peace.
Fr. Tim
