Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
Now we too often choose to use our free will in a negative way; allowing ourselves to think selfishly, and this wrong thinking brings upon us all our troubles. Instead of understanding that it is our essential nature to express God, to be ever about our Father’s business, we try to set up our own account. We abuse our own free will, trying to work apart from God; and the very natural result is all the sickness, poverty, sin, trouble, and death that we find on the physical plane. We must never for a moment try to make plans or arrangements without reference to God, or suppose that we can be either happy or successful if we are seeking any other end than to do his Will.
Our business is to bring our whole nature as fast as we can into conformity with the will of God. “In his will is our peace,” said Dante, and the Divine Comedy is really a study in fundamental states of consciousness, the Inferno representing the state of the soul that is endeavoring to live without God, the Paradiso representing the state of the soul that has achieved its conscious unity with the divine Will. It was this sublime conflict of the soul that wrung from the heart of the great Augustine the cry, “Thou has made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find themselves in Thee.”
Good Friday is the greatest example of following God’s will. Just think how the world would have turned out if Jesus had not followed God’s will for Jesus to take on all our sins and die! Then, we would not have been reconciled to God in the new covenant, would not have been given the Holy Spirit, would not have eternal life and would not have God’s laws written in our hearts.
But Jesus did God’s will knowing it meant torture, scorn and death. By his submission to God’s will; Jesus paid for our sins and reconciled us with God, we do have the Holy Spirit to counsel and guide us, we do have eternal life opened to us and God’s law is now in our hearts and minds. All joy and gladness is open to us due to Jesus’ simple statement of submission, “Not my will Father, but thy will be done”.
Many times we will face a choice to follow God’s will that seems too difficult or painful. Yet, we can be assured that if we follow God’s will, our choice will lead us through the pain to a splendid outcome that we could not have envisioned or achieved without the sacrifice. Jesus’ sacrifice turned the cross from a symbol of shame and degradation into a instrument of glory and triumph for all ages.
Lord, let us follow your will in all ways and thereby turn our sacrifices into the triumph of peace and the joy that surpasses all understanding.
By God’s will,
Z gardener
Good Morning Garden 
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