God's will in my day to day life

[roseproject]

I recently went through a certain interior struggle that, well, helped me get a different perspective on where my priorities lie. I was questioning whether or not we’ll remember things in our life when we go to heaven (many people, including a priest I wrote to, agreed that we do remember our lives). This caused me to worry about certain things on this earth that I may not remember, especially a certain dream I have to become a writer of stories. The thought of not recalling it…made heaven almost feel less desirable to me.

So, I decided that I want to work on directing my priorities even more towards God and, overall, growing in my closeness towards Him. That way, I can also grow to trust God more with this dream of mine; to write and use my writing to inspire people to become the best version of themselves. I don’t want this dream, that I wish to praise God with, to become an idol of sorts.

How does one go about doing God’s will all the time? I can’t just listen for “voices” all day and wait for them to tell me “do this” or “do that”, right? Also, you can’t “think about God” all the time in the sense that you’re consciously visualizing Him in your head all the time. I try my best to keep His teachings in mind in everything that I do; in this way you can say that I keep God in mind.

What’s the difference between personal desires and what God wants? I know God plants certain desires in our hearts if He truly wants us to fulfill it; he doesn’t give us strong desires for nothing. I’m just having a hard time understanding the process of knowing God’s will during even the most mundane moments of life. Is it a process of desiring things, then asking God what I should do with this desire, or is it a process of constantly asking God what to do next?
I don’t have a job yet and I don’t even have my driver’s license yet (I’m in my 20’s -w-)…so it can be hard to know what to do with myself at times; it can get pretty boring at times and I’ve willingly stopped working on my story for now to better focus my mind on God. I’m rather confused and not sure what to do with myself -__-

Thanks in advance

 

[Monica4316]

I think that’s a good question…

Holiness consists in God’s Will. Think of Our Lord and Blessed Mother how they always chose the Divine Will.

You might find helpful the book “Holy Abandonment” by Dom Vitalis Lehodey. Its about your exact question.

I think it starts with an intention to give your will to God and then learning to mortify your will in everyday actions. Then the big things would be easier. You know you are putting God’s Will first if even though you want to write, you are ok with the possibility of God saying no. If there is a resistance, that means there’s an attachment. We need to slowly get rid of attachments . Trusting in God’s plan being better than ours, goes a long way here… Also submitting to His plan for life.

What I think could be helpful to start with is asking Jesus and Mary for this grace, and every morning giving God your will for that day. Then during the day try to mortify your will. So if you want a certain food, have something else, etc. If you have a spiritual director, following what he tells you are good ways to know God’s will for something… Otherwise, knowing God’s Will can just be doing your duty. Your present duty is God’s Will for you

If during the day you do something self willed, dont get discouraged but use that for humility, and just try again. Eventually there might be a greater detachment to your own will. Other ways to mortify your will is doing your duties (work, prayer) etc when you really don’t want to and doing them well.

I would really recommend that book Following only God’s Will and not our own is actually what holiness is all about so that’s a great thing that you are drawn to it! It might be hard because our self will rebels, and that is the original sin… We need to mortify and submit it. If God wants you to write, wouldn’t it be more perfect to do it for Him, because it is His Will, knowing that you were entirely fine with giving it up for Him? and if His Will was something else, you would be so glad in Heaven to have chosen Him first. In Heaven, we would wish to have suffered more for God and have done His Will more perfectly… Once we see Him as He is in the beatific vision… In Heaven, there are no attachments.

God bless you!

 

[MaryT777]

Monica.
Well written post. The book you mention is on Amazon for 8 dollars used plus shipping. I will certainly order it. Thanks for noting it.

Mary.

 

[the_phoenix]

Acknowledge God.
Take the next right step.
Be a sign of hope to those around you.

 

[roseproject]

I think that’s a good question…

Holiness consists in God’s Will. Think of Our Lord and Blessed Mother how they always chose the Divine Will.

You might find helpful the book “Holy Abandonment” by Dom Vitalis Lehodey. Its about your exact question.

I think it starts with an intention to give your will to God and then learning to mortify your will in everyday actions. Then the big things would be easier. You know you are putting God’s Will first if even though you want to write, you are ok with the possibility of God saying no. If there is a resistance, that means there’s an attachment. We need to slowly get rid of attachments . Trusting in God’s plan being better than ours, goes a long way here… Also submitting to His plan for life.

What I think could be helpful to start with is asking Jesus and Mary for this grace, and every morning giving God your will for that day. Then during the day try to mortify your will. So if you want a certain food, have something else, etc. If you have a spiritual director, following what he tells you are good ways to know God’s will for something… Otherwise, knowing God’s Will can just be doing your duty. Your present duty is God’s Will for you

If during the day you do something self willed, dont get discouraged but use that for humility, and just try again. Eventually there might be a greater detachment to your own will. Other ways to mortify your will is doing your duties (work, prayer) etc when you really don’t want to and doing them well.

I would really recommend that book Following only God’s Will and not our own is actually what holiness is all about so that’s a great thing that you are drawn to it! It might be hard because our self will rebels, and that is the original sin… We need to mortify and submit it. If God wants you to write, wouldn’t it be more perfect to do it for Him, because it is His Will, knowing that you were entirely fine with giving it up for Him? and if His Will was something else, you would be so glad in Heaven to have chosen Him first. In Heaven, we would wish to have suffered more for God and have done His Will more perfectly… Once we see Him as He is in the beatific vision… In Heaven, there are no attachments.

God bless you!

My confusion lies espcially with this: does being detatched mean you must be indifferent? In order to do good things well, there should be passion from the worker and genuine satisfaction and pleasure from doing and completing said works, right? If, for an example, you are called to raise children, you must love them and care for them with great vigor. Are you required to feel this way simply because God says so, or…I mean, you don’t just raise children with the sole purpose in mind of gaining some higher spot in Heaven, right? It wouldn’t be genuine love in that instance. How then are you sopposed to love someone/thing without feeling any sort of attachment? Isn’t attachment and love kind of hand in hand to some extent?

One example I look to often is the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham must’ve loved his son dearly! He was the answer to many prayers and God had promised great things for him…yet God asked Abraham to sacrifice him, and he (though hesitently) agrees to obey. With what kind of love did Abraham love his son? He had a level of detatchment but his love towards him was still there.

I often feel similar to Abraham at times. There are moments in my life where, even though God has promised to achive great things through the story I’m developing, he calls me to “sacrifice” it (the big coincidence here is that my main character is, in fact, named Isaac haha). Everytime he has called me to do this thus far, He has seemed to “send the angel to stop my hand” in a sense, and something about my story would become even greater than it was beforehand! The worry I oftentimes get is “will he stop my hand this time?” I mean, why would he have alowed it to come this far in the first place?

Anyways as a creator of fictitious worlds and characters which I’ve put my soul, sweat and tears into, my talent feels…like it’s experiencing an identity crisis of sorts. What’s the purpose of such a talent? God already created people in the world. Why should we create more in our minds with our imaginations? What are my characters exactly? Just parts of myself? Parts of my desires with a form given to it? But they aren’t just personas of myself, just as children aren’t personas of their parents though they do inherit things from their parents and…stuff… …sighhhh. My mind has been heavy. I haven’t been able to sleep well because of it In short, in what place does my talent for creating fiction fall in God’s will? How does one create a lovingly written story without the love? How can one create beautiful characters if one does not feel any sort of really emotion or love towards them?

Detachment verses indifference…Is there a distinction between the two?

 

[Monica4316]

Hmm… Good question too! I think detachment is being willing to give something up if God asks. Basically putting Him first. A good example is St Louis De Montfort… He worked really hard to build a Calvary (scene). We can imagine he must have really cared for it. Then he was ordered to take it down and his response was “blessed be God”. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t a sacrifice for him, having worked so hard on the thing, but he put God first.

Another idea is doing it for God. Then your desires are already ordered. I’m sure this applies to St Louis too. For example we can write for God. Even if not directly religious… Just as we can offer Him all our everyday actions. In the example you said with children, of course people have a natural affection for children etc, but we only love God for His own sake… It doesn’t mean loving others to get a higher place in Heaven, that motive is thinking more of me than God or the people involved. We just love them with a more supernatural love as we grow, but this is more something distant or unaffectionate! In fact it is more loving, more intense, but God becomes more involved directly. This is how Our Blessed Mother loves. Its not more distant at all though I understand there might be that fear just as supernatural joy is greater than natural, so is supernatural love. Its actually more selfless because in our natural loves there is much selfishness. The natural love remains I guess but becomes transformed, purified, and the person relies more on the Agape type of love. Looking up the different types of love in Greek can help, and Archbishop Fulton Sheen did a great talk on this called 4 types of love, which is on YouTube I think from his official channel.

So over time, passion for writing becomes a passion for writing for God’s glory specifically, - I don’t even mean the topic but the intent, though the topic would be affected by this. You probably have this desire already but I mean that as we grow in detachment we still do everything with enthusiasm, just less selfishly and less for the sake of creatures, and more for God if this involves loving people, detachment leads not to coldness but to loving them with a more supernatural love. Does this make sense at all?

Attachments make us cling to things and the less we cling to them, the more the heart is free to love…
God bless!

 

[roseproject]

Hmm… Good question too! I think detachment is being willing to give something up if God asks. Basically putting Him first. A good example is St Louis De Montfort… He worked really hard to build a Calvary (scene). We can imagine he must have really cared for it. Then he was ordered to take it down and his response was “blessed be God”. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t a sacrifice for him, having worked so hard on the thing, but he put God first.

Another idea is doing it for God. Then your desires are already ordered. I’m sure this applies to St Louis too. For example we can write for God. Even if not directly religious… Just as we can offer Him all our everyday actions. In the example you said with children, of course people have a natural affection for children etc, but we only love God for His own sake… It doesn’t mean loving others to get a higher place in Heaven, that motive is thinking more of me than God or the people involved. We just love them with a more supernatural love as we grow, but this is more something distant or unaffectionate! In fact it is more loving, more intense, but God becomes more involved directly. This is how Our Blessed Mother loves. Its not more distant at all though I understand there might be that fear just as supernatural joy is greater than natural, so is supernatural love. Its actually more selfless because in our natural loves there is much selfishness. The natural love remains I guess but becomes transformed, purified, and the person relies more on the Agape type of love. Looking up the different types of love in Greek can help, and Archbishop Fulton Sheen did a great talk on this called 4 types of love, which is on YouTube I think from his official channel.

So over time, passion for writing becomes a passion for writing for God’s glory specifically, - I don’t even mean the topic but the intent, though the topic would be affected by this. You probably have this desire already but I mean that as we grow in detachment we still do everything with enthusiasm, just less selfishly and less for the sake of creatures, and more for God if this involves loving people, detachment leads not to coldness but to loving them with a more supernatural love. Does this make sense at all?

Attachments make us cling to things and the less we cling to them, the more the heart is free to love…
God bless!

Yeah, this makes sense. I’ve heard of the four types of love but I haven’t really looked into it much. I’ll see what that’s about then

Thanks

 

[fred_conty]

roseproject,

Whatever we know in heaven will not cause us any distress. Nothing in heaven or about heaven will ever allow us to be upset or mournfull again. St. Paul mentions this.

Now I don’t currently know how to explain that because I’ve never been to heaven, but it is true because
God revealed this to us.

It may be our direct face to face vision of God. What direct means is that there is no thought between God and ourselves. Rather our thought is God himself planted directly in our intellect without our reason or our musing. There is nothing between a person in heaven and God. Therefore we experience the beauty, power, and glory of God in rapture, and nothing can come between a person and God, their own thoughts included.

So whatever we see of this world and life in the next, it will be God’s view, love and happiness, which precludes any experience of unpleasantness what so ever.

Jesus in my heart, I believe in your tender love for me, I love you. Mother Teresa