Will of God

* It took me a while to update since I failed to realize that we had wifi in our retreat rooms.

Many a times before have I “offered” up myself to the Lord. The desires to know Him and to be fully His were always there. But whenever I tried, it always resulted in disappointment. I heard the priests say all the time, “Surrender yourself! Give yourself to the Lord! He will do miracles with your life, only if you let Him.”

But what was the meaning of all that? When I yelled out in my prayers before the Eucharistic Lord, ‘Lord! Have mercy on me! Use me for your kingdom! I do not want to live not knowing you!”, was that not a surrender? What more could I do to make sure that He answered my prayers? Why was it that every time I would get an emptier feeling after every surrender? Was I not worthy enough to work for the Lord? Or was it that He knew that I wasn’t responsible enough to handle His work?

I heard testimonies over and over again about the worst kind of people getting converted to Catholicism and doing amazing things wherever they went. But what about the
“regular” kids like us? Did we need a flash of lightning to strike us to tell us what the will of God was for us? Or did we need a vision, or a divine intervention to know what God required from us?

How do we tell what the He wants us to do?

How do we know that the decisions that we make are in accordance with His will?

‘I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” – Romans 12:1-2

- offer your lives as living sacrifices

- do not conform yourself to this world

- be transformed by the renewal of your mind

….so that, you may discern what is the will of God.

- Offer your self as living sacrifices.

What is a living sacrifice? Willingness to offer yourself upto the Lord even in distress, pain and hopelessness for the fulfillment of His will? Following in the footsteps of the disciples in giving up our physical and mental comforts? Living our lives with a smile in the midst of persecutions?

- Do not conform yourself to this world

Are we courageous enough to stand up for the Word of God even in the midst of persecutions such as the taunting of our “friends”? Are we willing to give up the addictions and ideologies of this world and instead fill our hearts and minds with divine knowledge? Even as we are doing things for His kingdom, are we doing it to please the world around us, or the Father above?

- Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Are we ready to align our hearts with that of our Father? Are we willing to give up our time and pleasures to empty out our minds filled with useless worries of the world, perversions, unnecessary thoughts, idleness etc. and fill it with the knowledge that the Spirit provides us with? Are we willing to strip away our inhibitory and judgmental nature and love one another like we are supposed to?

It is useless to discern the will of God if our heart, mind and soul are discerning our own will.

All glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit!