It may feel for some of us as though we are going through our own version of Gethsemane. But- I wonder whether for some of us we will need to say through tears- “Father I accept this as your will for me. Help me to submit to it.” In the end God’s will always has a good purpose. Jesus’ work on the cross had the ultimate good purpose- the eternal salvation of billions. Likewise His will has good purpose in our lives.

In a parallel universe somewhere I am currently in Heathrow Airport, about to fly out to Kenya to speak at a couple of conferences next week. It is one of a number of events that I was looking forward to this year that will no longer happen. And my own experience in this regard is relatively small fry- I know those who were due to be on their honeymoon at the moment.

What do you do with that? I’ve mentioned before that one of the great lessons of this period comes from James 4:14-15– “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” In the end, events only happen if they are God’s will. The blunt reality is that it wasn’t God’s will that I speak in Kenya this year. But where the will of God has caused us particular pain (more than a cancelled speaking trip) there may be some processing to do. How does the Bible do that?

The struggle

There are plenty of examples of biblical heroes who don’t find it easy to accept the will of God. Habakkuk can’t understand why God’s will involves the Babylonians invading Israel.

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