Book 1, Chapter 2
-Part 3-
Whenever we study the topic of the will of God, it seems our material for thought usually veers in the direction of knowing what we are supposed to do. That is, it is quite common for believers to think in terms of, “What does God want me to do in this situation?” Shall I speak to a friend about his bad attitude? Do I apply for this job instead of that one? Should I move? Should I stay? How should I respond? What church shall I attend? How involved should I become?
These are questions of significance to us, and we can be glad that God is there to help us decide such things.
However, if we think of the will of God as merely a means to make good decisions in our lives, then we have severely limited our relationship with him, and we are far, far away from the Christian understanding of the will of God. What we have in God, at this meager point, is God as a Magic 8-Ball.
In the will of God, we have everything that God offers us completely available at every moment. Wherever he is, his everything is presently offered. This is his will, to press everything he is into our moments. I believe we touch on this very little in the course of our lives. For some reason it is hard to remember and difficult to integrate.
We do not frequently say in our hearts, “It is the Lord.” Our circumstances send us dropping to our knees, not so much to recognize God as king at this moment, but to once again shake the Magic 8-ball.
God has availed himself to us as infinitely much more rich and personal and wonderful and beautiful than a 20-answer liquid dice agitator. While we are quite small in comparison to our Creator Father, we are made broad enough within to contain the everything that He presently offers us.
Speaking to us as the Lord, the good father dares us to “dilate” our hearts. Wonderful word.
“What do you desire, holy souls? Do not hold back, carry your longings beyond all measures and limits, dilate your hearts to an infinite extent, I have enough to fill them.” (Page 23)
Indeed, it is God’s desire to take care of us and overwhelm us with his goodness. The Scriptures bear this out in many places – suggesting we are free to dilate as much as we like:
“I, Yahweh, am your God, who brought you here from Egypt, you have only to open your mouth for me to fill it. (Psalm 81:10)
“Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.” (Ephesians 3:20)
“I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
I don’t know why we hesitate or feel a need to set up qualifiers and limits to the extent of the riches we have in God. Are we afraid to tell ourselves we have God’s everything because conditions in and around us are not perfect? Is it because we allow circumstances to blur our understanding of God’s everything, and we for some reason believe he is holding out on us? Is it because we have only one definition of prosperity and God does not always prosper us according to our definition?
Our reluctance here suggests that we will not be able to dilate our hearts much. We haven’t the faith to do so. In fact, we trust God only so much. “In God we trust … kinda,” should perhaps be stamped on American coins.
The good father says as much when he informs us that God’s presence in the moment is realized according to one’s (gulp) measure of faith:
“Faith is the measure; what you find in the present moment will be according to the measure of your faith.” (Page 23)
Here it would seem a good idea to ask God to increase the measure of our faith – to pray that he would help us to better see, better believe, better imagine and better trust in him. Once in the company of God, why would the heart go elsewhere unless it failed to see, believe, imagine and trust?
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