FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53  
54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   >>   >|  
rong, pure, who is love, and who is a Father-mother-God, and is _our_ God. "Thy _will_." God's will is His desires, His purposes, that which He wishes to occur, and that to which He gives His strength that it may occur. The earth is His creation. Men are His children. Judging from wise loving parents among men He has given Himself to thinking and studying and planning for all men, and every man, and for the earth. His plan is the most wise, pure, loving plan that can be thought of, _and more._ It takes in the whole sweep of our lives, and every detail of them. Nothing escapes the love-vigilance of our God. What _can_ be so vigilant and keen as love? Hate, the exact reverse, comes the nearest. It is ever the extremes that meet. But hate cannot come up to love for keen watchfulness at every turn. Health, strength, home, loved ones, friendships, money, guidance, protecting care, the necessities, the extras that love ever thinks of, service--all these are included in God's loving thought for us. That is His will. It is modified by the degree of our consent, and further modified by the circumstances of our lives. Life has become a badly tangled skein of threads. God with infinite patience and skill is at work untangling and bringing the best possible out of the tangle. What is absolutely best is rarely relatively best. That which is best in itself is usually not best under certain circumstances, with human lives in the balance. God has fathomless skill, and measureless patience, and a love utterly beyond both. He is ever working out the best thing possible under every circumstance. He could oftentimes do more, and do it in much less time if our human wills were more pliant to His. He can be trusted. And of course _trust_ means _trust in the darkest dark_ where you cannot see. And trust means trust. It does not mean test. Where you trust you do not test. Where you test you do not trust. Making this our prayer means trusting God. That is God, and that His will, and that the meaning of our offering this prayer. "Thy will _be_." A man's will is the man in action, within the limits of his power. God's will for man is Himself in action, within the limits of our cooperation. _Be_ is a verb, an action-word, in the passive voice. It takes some form of the verb to be to express the passive voice of any action-word. It takes the intensest activity of will to put this passive voice into human action. The greatest strength is revealed in
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53  
54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

action

 

loving

 
strength
 

passive

 

prayer

 

patience

 

circumstances

 
modified
 

Himself

 

thought


limits

 

measureless

 

utterly

 
intensest
 
circumstance
 

working

 

fathomless

 
tangle
 

express

 

activity


balance
 

absolutely

 
rarely
 

revealed

 

cooperation

 

Making

 

offering

 

meaning

 

trusting

 
greatest

pliant

 

darkest

 

trusted

 
oftentimes
 

necessities

 
Nothing
 
escapes
 

detail

 

planning

 
vigilance

reverse

 
nearest
 
vigilant
 

studying

 

thinking

 

purposes

 

wishes

 
desires
 
mother
 

Father