Embracing God's Will vs. Accepting God's Will

[KathyA]

I already posted this in Spirituality…forgive me for posting it here too.

I am someone (like many others) who really seeks to do God’s will. My attempts are often far from perfect, but part of my daily prayer is that I will be able to know, love and serve God more completely each day. Due to some difficult life situations in the past four years, I really feel like the joy has been sucked out of me lately. I have no doubt that God loves me deeply…and I know I SHOULD be very joyful just knowing that. There is the rub! Anyway, a recent turn of events (diagnosis of non-invasive breast cancer) has me wondering more than ever if God is trying to knock me over the head. As we’ve rode the waves of frustration and disappointment over not selling our house (on the market for over a year with ZERO offers), I’ve tried to figure out what I need to change. Is God trying to convict my heart in some way? Am I so blind and stubborn that I can’t see? Now the cancer. I’m thinking that God needed an even bigger stick because I’m just not getting it!

So, I’ve been searching and seeking, trying to bend in whatever way God wants me to bend. One revelation I had last week was if I’d gotten an insurance agent job I applied for last Spring, I would be in some very difficult waters right now, with no sick leave and no group health insurance (benefits of my current position). So, it was comforting to know that God protected me in that way. I think he’s protecting me in ways I just don’t understand, even now.

Part of my searching and seeking led me to an article last night. The article was in December’s Word Among Us about the Annunciation. In Gabriel’s appearance to Mary, there were three messages and three responses. The messages were that the Lord was with her, that she would conceive and bear Jesus and that the Holy Spirit would come upon her to accomplish this. Her responses were fear (initially), wonder (how can this be?) and finally, a willing of God’s holy and perfect plan (May it be done to me according to your word). The point of the article is that Mary’s “yes” was more than a passive acceptance of God’s will, a passive act of surrender. It was an active engagement of her will, an embrace of God’s will in her life. The article goes on to say that if we don’t look closely at this example, we might make the mistake of thinking that it WAS passive, just as we often make the mistake of thinking that we can settle for a passive faith…simply doing what God expects because it is the morally or spiritually right thing to do.

So my question to you is this…how do you think one “embraces” God’s will in a tangible way, rather than just accepting it?

Peace,
Kathy

 

[SMHW]

I’d have to read the article and do some serious thinking about it to give a really good answer.

But I do have a first thought. And that’s that you’d have to look at Mary’s life as a whole and not just at the Annunciation to see how she embraced God’s will.

We don’t have that many examples from Scripture of Mary’s life but there are a couple that stand out. One is the time that Jesus was left behind in Jerusalem when he was 12 years old. Mary did not understand and in fact challenged her son. We don’t know what happened afterwards but I’m guessing that Mary was not *feeling *very calm and accepting during the trip home. Years later, at the wedding feast of Cana, Mary had to step beyond the apparent meaning of the words of Jesus when directing the servants to do what Jesus told them.

My point is that embracing God’s will doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll always recognize it or feel good about it when you do recognize it. Embracing God’s will may not be entirely about what you do; it may be about who you become because of what you face.