The Will of God

Duncan Sinclair

THE will of God is mistakenly looked upon by many as being as capricious as the so-called will of mortals. To them it is quite uncertain in its activities, for they believe it to be equally capable of producing happiness and misery, health and disease, life and death. They may hold that the destinies of men are in God's hand, but they believe that these destinies are swayed by a will which is inscrutable and uncertain in its purposes, because they believe that God is cognizant of both good and evil!

The student of Christian Science soon becomes aware how the mistake arises. Christian Science makes it plain that God is infinite and altogether good. Hence it follows that what mortals call evil is unknown to God. Being infinitely good, God neither knows evil nor of evil; He is conscious only of His own perfect self-existence. Unless one gains some understanding of God as infinite good and discerns in consequence that evil is unreal, he cannot possibly know what the nature of the will of God is.

Christ Jesus knew better than any other who has lived on earth the nature of God's will, because he understood so perfectly the nature of God Himself. Jesus was always doing good. Often his good deeds took the form of the healing of disease or sin; sometimes they were made manifest in his mastery over the elements, as when he stilled the storm at sea. But whatever the form his good deeds took, they each and all demonstrated that the will of God is good; for every one of them was based on the understanding that God is good. It will be remembered that just before his betrayal, when his disciples had forsaken him and the awful ordeal of the cross lay before him, the understanding of the goodness of the Father and the perfection of His will was with him as a comforting angel, and he was able to pray: "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." And his implicit faith in and obedience to God's will won him the victory over every material belief, including the belief of death. It was Jesus' understanding of God as infinite good and his faith in God's perfect will which gave him his every victory over evil.

God never varies; He is always the same perfect One. And God's will is ever the same perfectly good will. In the Lord's Prayer the words occur: "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." And Mrs. Eddy interprets them on page 17 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" as, "Enable us to know,—as in heaven, so on earth,—God is omnipotent, supreme," thus affirming the fact that God is present everywhere in His supremacy or omnipotence. Since God is omnipresent and omnipotent, there is no other real presence or power anywhere. What a wonderful revelation! Its meaning is only beginning to dawn on students of Christian Science; but for the little understanding they have of it, they are beyond words grateful.

A great deal of the suffering on earth to-day is perpetuated by the fallacy that God sends it; that it is in accordance with His will. It would be difficult to number the sick who thus believe. But how far the belief is from the truth! And the error in every case has its rise in the fallacy that God is not wholly good, or that He knows of both good and evil. Let the sufferers perceive that God is wholly good and that evil is a false belief or lie, and they will at once begin to discern that God's will towards them cannot be other than good. Then, like the mist dissolving under the sun's warm rays, their troubles will begin to disappear; for, as Mrs. Eddy says, "Truth, and not corporeal will, is the divine power which says to disease, 'Peace, be still'" (Science and Health, p. 144). It is a fact beyond dispute that the lie that God's will is not wholly good has been and still is responsible for an immense amount of the world's sorrow and suffering; and it is equally correct to say that the truth that God's will is wholly good is of the greatest value in healing that same sorrow and suffering.

What a load is lifted from the heart when it is understood that God's perfect will is done,—is already done; that God's creation, infinite though it be, is finished and complete. That is the truth; but it remains for mankind to demonstrate it. This they can do, gradually it may be but certainly, and exactly as they understandingly affirm and realize it, denying thereby reality to every belief of incompleteness and imperfection.
Duncan Sinclair

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