No Strain in Doing God’s Will

“There is no strain in doing God’s Will as soon as you recognize that it is also your own.  (T30)”

Affirmation:  “no strain in doing God’s will”

Reflections:

1 – What We Think about God’s Will

This sentence is a primary theoretical foundation for the Course.  Much of our rebellion has been predicated upon the idea that we would not believe that God’s will would be desirable; we think that we can choose better.  We even think that His will is punitive.

2 – Personal Experience

I questioned the will of God for all of my twenties and half of my thirties.  I wanted to follow what I understood to be God’s will, but too often I did not fully understand that God is within, and that surely I would be doing my will when I followed what I understood to be His.  So I followed His will, not having met A Course in Miracles, and not knowing if I were deluding myself.  When I was 34, I found ACIM, and another whole new chapter opened for me.  It was indeed welcome news to know that in following what I perceived to be God’s will for–in all–14 years, I was actually following what I wanted as well.  But it didn’t quite feel like that.  It had felt as though I were following a dream.  But doesn’t God speak to us through the everyday “reality” that is a dream, an illusion (from ACIM)?  And so isn’t what we really want in our hearts often what He would have for us?  His pathway is not as remote as we might, on first glance, see it to be.

3 – God’s Will = Our Real Will

How wrong we are!  God’s will and our own “real” will are the same!  What a relief this can be.  Our thoughts of Jonah and the whale may be relegated to an Old Testament story, not meaningful in the world in which we live today.  With Jonah, the idea that God would pursue us and demand that we do His will, is the main crux of the matter.  In the Course, we are gently led to do God’s will, once we have understood that we are actually doing our own will at the same time.  The God of A Course in Miracles is in no way a punitive God.

4 – No Conflict in Following God’s Pathway

So, we experience “no strain” in doing God’s will.  We see no conflict in following God’s pathway.  It is the pathway that we would choose if we could see the whole picture.  Our judgment is not that wondrous; we see imperfectly and only in part.  But when we acquiesce to the Holy Spirit, we truly know the peace of following God’s will as our own.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

What a relief to learn that God’s will is really our real will!  Thank you, dear Father, for this insight.  This is one of the greatest of Your blessings!  Not to know that we are in Your Will is difficult indeed.

When we know that doing God’s will, as we perceive it, is really our own real will, we do not feel coerced.  Thank you for this insight, this great blessing.

I would walk the pathway today that You and Our Guide point out.  I would ask for direction at every point, knowing that this is what You want me to do.  Help me to relax in Your care, sure of Your love and protection.  Be with me so that the day turns out well.  I know that the day will turn out well when I am following Your Will, which ever is also my own.

Amen.