“Sweet Will of God”, R.S.

My life journey of twenty-three years is accurately portrayed in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 10, verses 25-37. By the abounding mercy and rich grace of the Lord Jesus, I consider myself that “certain man” who was going down from Jerusalem (meaning peace) to Jericho (meaning a curse). I was leaving the foundation of peace, which I had in the Lord growing up as a child, and was descending into a condition of profound depression. As a wounded traveler, “stripped, beaten, and left half dead,” I groped to find the meaning of my human life. I reasoned in vain, asking, why me? Why am I alive? As people passed me by and empty words were uttered, my reply was a hopeless gaze blurred by my own tears. But “a certain good Samaritain,” my dear Lord Jesus, saw me, knew me, and reached me. Moved with compassion, He came to me and bound up all my wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. His appearing saved, cleansed, conquered, and healed me. There came a full freedom in Christ my heart had not known. Out of my inner most being flowed a song to my God, words with deep meaning as seen in Hymns #383:

“Thy precious will, O conqu'ring Savior,

Doth now embrace and compass me;

All discords hushed, my peace a river,

My soul a prisoned bird set free.”

Yet my song did not end here. As the Lord ministered to me, bit by bit restoring my soul, He “brought me to an inn” (v. 34b) to be fully cared for by His people and shepherded in His flock. The genuine love of Christ is experienced and expressed among the brothers and sisters in the churches, His flock, which He Himself tends and guides (John 10:11-16). Thus, the Lord's love is constraining me to follow the footsteps of the flock. As He, the great Shepherd, supplies my every need through the members of His Body, the church, my heart is filled with Him, His will becomes my will and I resign to abide in Him, thus bringing me to stanza 4 of Hymns #383,

“Shut in with Thee, O Lord, forever,

My wayward feet no more to roam;

What pow'r from Thee my soul can sever?

The center of God's will my home.”

Through abiding in the Lord day by day, my enjoyment of Christ in the local church continues to grow, deepen, and even multiply. According to His will and good pleasure, Christ and the church are to satisfy the desire of God's heart (Ephesians 3:25-32). Thus, until He comes, His Bride to meet and our heart and His to complete, I will pray in many ways, “Sweet will of God, still fold me closer, Till I am wholly lost in Thee” (chorus of Hymns #383).