Yielded

Yielded

May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:10

“What is God’s will for my life?” Most of us ask that question at some time. Good things happen, challenging things happen, and we wonder where God is in all of it. Sometimes we may have a clear understanding, but most of the time we muddle through, hoping that we’re getting it partially right. The problem isn’t that we aren’t hearing the answer. The problem is that instead of trying to figure out the answer, we need to simply declare to God, “Your will be done.”

That is one of the most common refrains in Amish life. Amish people submit themselves to God’s will, believing that the divine will is sometimes clear and sometimes impossible to discern. For example, a minister preaching a funeral sermon for one of the victims of the Amish school shooting in Nickel Mines said that it is not God’s will that people shoot one another, and in the same sermon suggested that the schoolgirls’ deaths were somehow part of God’s plan in a sense that humans might never fully understand. The same may be said for many of life’s hardships.

In some cases, people find positive ways of understanding their pain without claiming to know any ultimate purpose behind it. Ada Borkholder, an Indiana Amish woman who contracted polio as a very young child writes, “I have often said if I had to have polio, then I am glad it was when I was young so I don’t remember being active.” She does not romanticize her suffering or claim that her condition served some greater good. She simply concludes, “Lord, Thy will be done.”

One Amish proverb says, “The yoke of God does not fit a stiff neck.” Our necks are stiff if we are set in our ways and are determined to figure out for ourselves the right way. Better is realizing that Jesus is the right way.

So many times we try to seek the will of God when really we just need to seek God Himself. When we seek Him, we will find Him. And where He is, there is His will.

Although God sometimes chooses to withhold answers for our good, He simply knows you need Him more than you need the answers. Seek Him and declare, “Your will be done.”

Yes, dear heavenly Father, Your will be done.