Am I doing Your Will or my will when I act, Lord?
I recently had a great conversation with a dear friend and super blessed and holy sister in Christ.! The conversation was around this question. How does one know when you’re doing God’s Will vs your own?
She talked about coming to know God well enough and understanding how He thinks in order to unite your desires with His Divine Will. Then, simply saying yes to that united thought – which would be His Will.
She used Mary as an example. The Blessed Mother is our example of following God’s Will perfectly. She had the advantage of her Immaculate Conception to keep her safe from original sin’s contamination. But, to receive that gift, she had to assent to God’s request. Mama Mary lived purely in the Will of God, so perfectly that she and God’s Will were nearly indistinguishable.
We all live with original sin always looming in our heart. Does this make it impossible to live perfectly within the Divine Will of God as Mary has? We may not be able to live inseparably within the perfect Will of God but we can come to that point. Actually, that is our goal.
This brings us back to the original question – am I doing God’s Will or my own? How do we distinguish our actions from our Will and God’s Will?
We must ask God for guidance and most critically, stop and listen. In the first steps, we have to be very deliberate in our actions. We must move from being reactionary and think through our decisions before we act upon them. In time, our decisions and actions will begin to align with God and the gap between thought and action will close. But we must be methodical and open to listening to God’s voice.
I believe this is where our Blessed Mother was the day Gabriel came to speak to her. She was well trained to knowing and acting in the Divine Will. She was trained her whole life by her parents, her own prayer and thoughts and of course, God.
See tomorrow for the concluding thoughts on this topic.