Trusting our wishes to God
Yielding to God’s will, rather than willfulness, brings direction and fulfillment, as a man learned when applying for a new job.
What would it mean if every single wish that anyone ever made came true? While we’d certainly be seeing a lot of wonderful happenings, we’d also be dealing with the effects of destructive and ill-conceived desires. How chaotic might the world become?
But there’s a way to consistently improve and elevate our desires: honestly making space in our thought for God, rather than letting willfulness take over. Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy explains right at the beginning of her book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” “Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds” (p. 1).
Christian Science explains that God created every one of us spiritually, and therefore our real purpose isn’t about manipulating physicality, it’s about expressing God’s loving, capable, and utterly good nature. God’s will for us is always to shine brightly with His reflected light! Choosing to embrace God’s will is a form of prayer, as Jesus demonstrated when he said, “Not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).
I discovered the joy of embracing and trusting God’s will during a job search. I had learned about a job I thought was perfect for me. I began wanting it so badly that I could taste it! Not long after applying, I found another job opening that was mildly interesting to me and paid much less. I applied for it too.
My passionate wish for the first job was blinding. As I waited for interviews, I began feeling uncomfortable with how willful I was being. I realized that it was time to change my whole approach. Instead of indulging in my own personal will, I felt called to yield everything to God’s will.
So my prayer changed from “God, please give me the job I wish for because I know it will make me happy,” to “God, what matters most is that wherever I am, I am useful to You. I only want Your will for me.” As God’s children, we are always within the infinitely good care of God, and that means that we can trust God to express Himself in us without reserve. Wherever we may find ourselves, there are opportunities to express God’s spiritual, good qualities.
When we subordinate our personal wishes to God’s will, it clears the air for us mentally and brings to bear in our thought and experience the power and action of God.
That’s what I experienced with how smoothly things progressed. I received offers for both jobs. But now, whenever I considered the second job, I felt the peace and love of God. I knew that this was God leading me. Without looking back, I took the second job, and it ended up preparing me for even more gratifying and useful work than I ever could have imagined. What an important lesson.
Yes, it would be a curious thing if every single person’s wishes, good or bad, came true. So in our prayers, we can give our desires to God so that they may be brought into line with His will and, thereby, truly bless.
In this very moment, God’s infinitely good will is available to each one of us, without exception. It’s natural for us to open up to our Father’s peaceful, loving leadings. And when we do, we’ll discover our path is always to thrive as God’s entirely spiritual expression, and this gift is beyond anything for which we could dream.