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"Sweet Will of God"

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"I worship you, sweet Will of God,
And all your ways adore;
And every day I live, I see
To love you more and more."

"I love to kiss each print where you
Have set your unseen feet.
I cannot fear you, blessed Will,
Your empire is so sweet."

"I have no cares, O blessed Will,
For all my cares are thine;
I live in triumph, Lord, for you
Have made your triumph mine."
F. W. Faber

"Not my will—but may Your will be done"

Not every Christian seems able to enter into Faber's adoration of the will of God. Many good people think always of this will—as something painful, something hard and bitter. When they say, in the petition of The Lord's Prayer, "May Your will be done," they put a shudder into the words as if a ploughshare were being driven through their very heart! They have learned to think that God's will means always—a sorrow, the death of a loved one, the loss of property, the enduring of some sore trial. The words suggest to them always a painful cross of some kind.

But this is a wrong interpretation of the prayer. No doubt there are times when there must be a struggle between our will and God's, and when it costs much for us to yield. But this is not the exclusive nor even the ordinary meaning of the petition. Primarily, it is aprayer, not for the suffering—but for the active doing of the will of God. This is plainly the meaning of the petition in the form of words which our Lord gave to his disciples. It is a prayer that the will of God may become the law of our life that we may learn to do it always. This embraces all obediences, all duties, the whole of our common life. It includes all the sweet, happy experiences we have in our homes and among our friends, all the gladness of love, all the pleasures of social relations. It is a prayer that in all the varied conditions and circumstances of life—we may do the things that will please God.

There is nothing in this that is painful or hard. There is a secret of very sweet joy—which is found always in the doing of God's will. It brings the approval of conscience—the bird that sings in the heart when one does right. Then it insures to us the commendation and the companionship of God. It was Jesus himself who said, "The Father has not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." Great gladness is found in the doing of God's will. Instead of meaning something bitter and sorrowful—it means the doing of things that should be easy and pleasant.

The standard which is set for us in the prayer, as our Lord has given it to us, indicates in a very clear and remarkable manner that it is a joyous thing to which we are summoned. We are taught to pray that the divine will may be done on earth—as it is done inheaven. How is the will of God done in heaven? Surely it does not there mean sorrow, loss, pain, sacrifice. The inhabitants of heaven are never called to stand beside dying children or beside new made graves, to give up out of their hands the treasures of love they prize more than life.

There are no hard experiences to pass through; no sore struggles to endure in that happy land. There are no Gethsemanes in heaven, where amid strong crying and tears—the child of God must lie and agonize as he accepts the cup which the Father puts into his hand. There the will of God is always joyous—and the doing of it always brings delight. The angels fly swiftly on the errands on which they are sent, doing with equal alacrity the most stupendous thing and the smallest ministries.

So it ever is in heaven—the will of God is done always with joy. It consists in happy activities, in joyous services. It is this heavenly standard that is set for our earthly living. The will of God, as it is done there, is always sweet—it is always a joy to do it. Evidently, therefore, the thought in our Lord's mind, when he gave this prayer to his disciples, was not primarily the suffering and enduring of the will of God—but the joyful obedience of common life.

True, this is not always easy. Our hearts do not incline us naturally to God's will and ways. We are prone to wander from the divine commandments. It is not until we have a new heart—that we begin to desire to do the will of God.

A boy was greatly perplexed about the thought that heaven was so far away, and he wondered how anyone in this world could ever get there. His wise mother said to him, "Heaven must come down to you—heaven must first come into your heart." This explains the whole mystery of the doing of God's will on earth as it is done in heaven. The heavenly life must come down first to us, into our heart; or else we never can enter heaven. When we have heaven in us—we begin to grow into God's likeness, striving to do God's will. Even then, however, it does not instantly become easy for us. It takes all of life to train and discipline our will, into happy and joyous obedience.

Still and always, however, this is the lesson set for us—the doing of God's will on earth, as it is done in heaven, as we ourselves shall do it in heaven when we reach that happy home. If your heart is full of love for Christ—the doing of the will of God will always be sweet, even though it is against nature and at the cost of much self-denial. It has been said very truly: "The outside world takes all its color, value, and grace—from the kind of world one carries about in one's self." Heaven in us—will make the hardest tasks a delight.

No doubt even angels have errands and tasks given to them, which in themselves would be hard—but which become easy, a delight, because they are accepted as parts of the will of God for them. This is the great secret of joy in service. Anything that is God's will for us—it should be gladness for us to do. If we love God deeply, everything that he wants us to do it is a joy for us to do. If we do not love God—then even the commonest, simplest duties which his will requires, are hard and dreary tasks for us.

While primarily it is the active doing of God's will, to which we are called, we are sometimes led into the way of suffering and sacrifice. It was so in Christ's own experience. He did always the Father's will—but at last that will laid on him the burden of the Cross. Jesus said that if we would be his followers—we must take up our cross and bear it after him. Sometime in every life, the will of God means a cross. We are called to give up earth's dearest treasures, or to step aside from pursuits into which all our life's ambitions have gone, or to accept suffering and pan as our lot, instead of joy, health, and activity.

How can we make God's will sweet in these cases? There is only one answer—we must love God so much, that we shall always find joy in any service which he may require of us. The way to take the bitterness out of any hard experience, is to acquiesce in it, to cease struggling and resisting, and to bring our will into quiet conformity with God's. Whenever we fail thus to submit—we make a cross for ourselves, and earth's brightness turns to gray.

But when we sink our will in God's, sure of his better wisdom and safer guidance, and of his perfect love—even the most painful things have in them secrets of joy, as the will of God grows sweet to us.


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