Will Of God 5 – Is God in control?

Love does not insist on its own way (1 Corinthians 13:5).

God has something God wants you to do, to be. God cares more about accidents, deaths and evil than you and I do. So what kind of God wants, cares, and desires?

God’s will isn’t that of an iron-fisted tyrant who must have his way or heads will roll. God isn’t a manipulator; we are not marionettes down here. Is God in control? Long-term, eventually, yes – but day in, day out, no. At times I do God’s will, but often I do not, and you don’t either. God chooses not to determine everything. “Love does not insist on its own way” (1 Corinthians 13:5). So I can’t simply conclude that whatever happens equals God’s will. God’s will doesn’t happen lots of times. Otherwise we needn’t bother hunting down terrorists or criminals (unless we want to reward them for doing God’s will).

If God loves more immensely than we can fathom, and yet if God does not insist on having God’s way in every little thing, then God’s heart is broken – all the time. “Love bears all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7) – and we see this God of extraordinary grace grieving throughout the Bible, and history.

Leslie Weatherhead made famous the distinction between the intentional and the circumstantial will of God: God causes some things to happen, while God allows other things to happen. There is some wisdom in this, although as we will see it doesn’t solve a few knotty problems. But we can take comfort in the fact that God does not inflict horrors on humanity; evil need not be chalked up to God.

God is not capricious. God’s will is a relationship. God is rouse-able, as in Jesus’ story about the friend banging on the door at midnight for some bread (Luke 11:5-8). If we apprehend God’s will, it is not through intellectual banter, but by prayer. So let us pray these words St. Francis encouraged his friends to pray:

Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God,
grant to us the grace to do for you
what we know you want us to do.
Give us always the desire to please you.
Inwardly cleansed, interiorly illumined
and enflamed with the fire of the Holy Spirit,
may we be able to follow in the footprints
of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.