Your will be done

She put the skins of the goats on his arms and on the hairless part of his neck. She handed him the tasty food, along with the bread she had baked.
Then Jacob went to his father and said, ‘Father!’
‘Yes’, he answered. ‘Which of my sons are you?’
Jacob answered, ‘I am your older son Esau; I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of the meat that I have brought you, so that you can give me your blessing.’ (verses 16-19)

Read Genesis 27:1-29

Yet again we see human beings trying to help God, trying to make sure that his will gets done. Rebecca had been promised that her younger son would be the one who would be blessed, yet she still felt the need to manipulate things so that it happened, especially since her husband seemed to favour the older son.

Human history is full of stories of people doing this. Some of the worst examples are where both sides in a war go into it in God’s name, firmly believing he is on their side.

God doesn’t need our help to bring about his will. He certainly doesn’t need the trickery, the dishonesty, that Rebecca and Jacob – and many people since – used to ‘make things happen’. But, as he so often does, he forgives our sin, and he even uses things we have done to bring his will about.

Surely we have seen enough of God’s goodness to trust him to be able to do and to want to do the things needed so that his will is done ‘on earth as it is in heaven’. Then we will be free to do what he does need us to do in order for his will to be done: be his witnesses to people he wants to save.

Father, your will be done – without my interference. Amen.

by Bob Turnbull, in ‘God’s Promises for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1999)

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