God's will is really kind of simple. I think it all boils down to us allowing him to restore the relationship with him that was his intention all along. God so fervently seeks a relationship with us, that He has demonstrated just how far He is willing to go to restore it! All the way to the Cross -- then further still.
On the will of God, maybe no better example of being in God's will has ever been offered than Jesus on the cross. We are reminded of the word's of Christ when he hung on the cross as recorded in Matthew 27:46:
“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
At the very moment that Christ uttered those words -- he stood firmly in the center of God's will! That is not a trivial issue -- that may well be the central theme for all of us -- stand in God's will even when it hurts. Maybe it is even stand in his will until it hurts. For it is only through suffering that we truly make connections with the world.
“Suffering and joy teach us, if we allow them, how to make the leap of empathy, which transports us into the soul and heart of another person. ln those transparent moments we know other people's joys and sorrows, and we care about their concerns as if they were our own.” Fritz Williams
I believe the strength of the message of Christ is not how to avoid suffering, but how we can suffer with a hope. I only hope that I can suffer enough to find myself in the center of His will! Not in any trivial way -- no, I don't ask for God to give me pain, I am perfectly capable of generating enough of that on my own. I pray that God will so touch me that I understand that I suffer because I am -- and only through my suffering am I really moved.
Give me a heart that suffers for others, Oh God -- breathe into me a spirit that seeks to comfort others and thereby find comfort through Your Will.
