RECENTLY, while I was talking with a friend over the telephone, a problem that involved making a decision was discussed. In an effort to be helpful, I said, "Why don't you pray earnestly, 'Thy will be done,' and let the answer unfold?" The reply was so straightforward that it brought a smile, "I am going to do that as a last resort."
The complete honesty of my friend was amusing but thought-provoking. How many times do we do just that—wait until all else has failed before we ask that God's will be done! When trouble arises, human will, which outlines its own selfish desires and false pleasures, is reluctant to let go of these for fear of losing something real. This reluctance is uncovered and healed in Christian Science, which reveals the truths of God and of man's relationship to Him and unfolds the fact that God's will for His children is always good.
Christ Jesus came to do the will of God. His understanding of man's unity with the Father so completely governed his every act that the sick were healed, the sinning reformed, the dying raised to life by the touch of his exalted thought. He said (John 6:38), "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me."
Jesus knew that the divine will is the way of Love. Much of the teaching since the Master's time has perverted the sense of God's will into a stern, fearsome way of punishment for the errors of mankind. To do the Father's will is often thought to mean a renunciation of joy and happiness, a resignation to unfruitful, colorless experiences. This discouraging picture has often caused men to turn away from God. Christ Jesus knew that God is Love. He proved the ever-availability of God's love to heal, and he taught his followers to do the works that he did.
The Master's teachings have again been revealed in Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy says of him in Science and Health (p. 168): "He did the will of the Father. He healed sickness in defiance of what is called material law, but in accordance with God's law, the law of Mind."
God is Mind, infinite good. He does not view His creation in terms of disease, limitation, and penalty. He made His creation spiritual and perfect, and it will ever remain as the divine creator knows it. In the reality of being, God's will is already done in man, God's own image and likeness. So, to pray that God's will be done in us is to pray that our own true selfhood be revealed to us.
To the human sense of things, man seems a mixture of good and evil qualities. But it is comforting to know that whatever is not good is error, which can be cast out of thought and experience when the truth of God's allness and of man's unity with Him is learned. Mortal mind, which blames God for evil, is a deceiver, for God knows only good. There can be no loss of joy and real happiness in trusting God's direction. Wonderful growth unfolds as we walk in the way that He points out. Stubborn human will leads into harsh conduct, while a loving, expansive desire to do and be good opens the way to happy, useful lives.
We cannot ask too often whether it is the divine will or the human that is motivating us in our daily tasks. Material, selfish pursuits are sometimes hard to distinguish as such, for they come to us in the guise of good, often cherished, desires. Jesus said that we should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all the needed things would be added. Therefore, our first seeking should be for the understanding of the real nature of God and man.
In this search, we find a new heaven and a new earth opening before our eyes. Heaven, here and now, through right thinking and living, comes in the place of belief in an illusory heaven afar off. The glories of earth blossom where no beauty was seen before, as we catch glimpses of the spiritual ideas of which the real universe is comprised, in place of matter and its deadening limitations. No longer do we fear to do the will of our Father-Mother God, who has only good for us. In this spiritual adventure, the heaviness of materiality falls away, and we gain the buoyancy of life that finds all in God.
Human experience grows richer and fuller when blessed by the understanding of God's will. Material possessions and circumstances that seemed to claim our energy and endeavors may no longer seem important. However, that which will enable us to serve God and to grow into greater understanding of Him will endure. Each task becomes a demonstration of the divine power, and we whisper, "Thank You, Father," for the ability to accomplish needed tasks and for refreshing, new ideas that meet the human need.
Sometimes it requires much continuance in prayer to receive a clear concept of God's will for us; but the work of knowing the nothingness of mortal mind's suggestions and the guiding direction of spiritual ideas that come to replace these suggestions provide the evidence of the Father's care for us as we journey from sense to Soul. The restrictions of lack give way to God's abundance as we acknowledge true spiritual ideas to be our real supply. Then the outward human experience takes on the improved aspect determined by our spiritual thinking, and we understand what Jesus meant when he said that he came that we might have life more abundantly.
I was awakened one day when I read in a Christian Science Sentinel that pressure is the expression of the self-will of mortal mind. I had long been troubled by that restricting belief, and I now saw that the healing of this false claim must come through learning to know and to do God's will. For several days I prayed, "Thy will be done." Then the goodness of God's will began to unfold to my thought, which became illumined by the expectation of good, which destroys fear. Tasks that had seemed arduous and for which mortal mind had said there was not enough time or strength were soon accomplished with joy. There was a sense of peace and rightness I had never known before.
One evening, while I was praying for divine guidance, a new neighbor knocked at the door. While I was helping her to overcome a sense of fear that was trying to possess her, the way opened for me to give her a copy of Science and Health, which I had been led to purchase two days before. That night an aggressive sense of illness presented itself to me. I claimed that God's good will is already done in His child and that it was human will to believe in disease as a reality. This truth helped to break the mesmerism, and I was soon free.
If we are tempted to believe that we cannot know God's will for us, let us follow in the footsteps of our beloved Leader. Many times she prayed long to see the unfolding of one small step and to let the divine plan be revealed. Through her devotion to divine Love's guidance, the entire Christian Science movement unfolded. She writes in Science and Health (p. 242), "In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error,—self-will, self -justification, and self-love,—which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death."
So instead of waiting until human plans have failed before turning to God, divine Love, for guidance, let us turn first to Him, trusting His goodness to enfold us always until we, rejoicing, arrive at the realization that in God's perfect creation His perfect will is done.
