DELIGHT IN GOD’S WILL ~ CookingFood.Org

“GENEROUS LENT 2017”

Lenten Reflections

Wednesday, 29^thMarch 2017.

Fourth Week of Lent

Is 49: 8-15;

Ps 145: 8-9, 13-14, 17-18;

Jn 5:17-30

DELIGHT IN GOD’S WILL

As a child in Joseph’s carpenter shop, Jesus learnt what his father wanted. Little by little he came to understand more, to make a straight cut or how to fasten two pieces of wood together. He began to envision the finished work, to see the table or chair his father wanted to build. Finally he could take a project from start to finish in a way that made Joseph proud. In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of a similar intimacy with his heavenly Father. He says and does only what he has heard his Father saying and doing. His entire aim is to please his Father, to accomplish his Father’s purpose. Because he keeps that whole purpose in mind. He knows that somehow they all contribute to the great plan of salvation.

As for us, we can take from this understanding of the unity of the Father and the Son, the glorious lesson on how we enter into unity with God. This happens first by seeking the mind of God. Second, we must believe what we come to know, we must choose it for our lives. The challenge is that there are numerous competing voices vying for our attention. As we sort through them, choosing only that which God reveals, we naturally become attracted to the mind and will of God and make them our own. In this act we also become one with God.

Like Jesus, we all want to do God’s will. But in order to become effective in our work, we too need to understand the “big picture.” Sometimes we get tied up in knots trying to figure out little things like whether God would prefer that I stay home with my family or go to a meeting at church this evening. Of course Jesus cares about every detail of our lives, but we will find it easier to make specific choices once we have a better grasp on the big picture what the Father is building and how he is inviting each of us to fit into his great purposes.

Prayer: Father in Heaven, I thank You for the gift of Jesus Your Son and I thank You for the unity that you both share. Draw me into that glorious unity established by Your minds and wills. Make me one with You so that You also are my Father. Father in Heaven, Jesus the Son, I trust in You. Amen.