This brings us back to yesterday’s question. “How does one know when you’re doing God’s Will vs your own?”
God gave me the answer several years ago on the day of a men’s Emmaus retreat I was to lead. The retreat leader is called to select his team, all the speakers and support. Each of the speakers is assigned specific topic for their talk. The leader should be working with every team member throughout the preparation process. Through the months long planning and prep, the leader needs to be heavily invested in prayer both for protection of the team members as well as for guidance in assigning roles.
I was asked to lead this men’s retreat and worked hard through prayer and discernment set everything up perfectly. The day of the retreat finally came and while in the chapel in prayer, I felt the stress of the moment. “What if I made wrong selections because I didn’t listen to God’s Will but let my desires guide?”
Then, kneeling before the Tabernacle, God gave me a profound peace by sharing His Wisdom. I heard Him speak within my heart, “Trust, My son, you can’t mess up My Divine Will. It is your desire to do My Will that is important, and trust.”
In that moment, I knew that even if every choice I had made over the prior months was my desire, God’s Divine Will was so perfect that He would even use my will to fulfill His Will. Nothing I could do could mess up God’s Divine Plan, if I only trusted and tried.
“What if I screwed up everything God had planned?” It’s always a terrifying prospect to contemplate being outside of God’s Will.
In this life, we may never be perfectly aligned with God’s Divine Will as is Mary. But, if we make our best effort and trust, all will work out just right.
It all comes down to trust. This is exactly where are Blessed Lady was in Gabriel’s request. She trusted in the Angel’s words from God, even though she didn’t understand what they meant.
We need to open a conversation with God and make the effort to align to His Will, giving our fiat for Him to act within our life. Then, once we say yes, trust the results to God. If we make a wrong choice, trust that God knows and will even use those errors of our will to align to His.
Then, trust that the Holy Spirit will use that as a teachable moment to help us learn to align more perfectly next time. He is constantly helping us to learn our great call to be a saint.
We need only to trust God is in total control and listen to His voice when He is showing us how to live to the next level in our sanctity. That is what the Road of Faith is about, trusting in God and learning how to walk closer to Him – one step at a time.