The Father's Will and Emotional Relief
Greetings and good morning, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series, where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. This morning we seek to understand the relationship between doing the Father’’s will and emotional relief.
The Father’’s Will and Emotional Relief
"Then saith he unto them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here and watch with me, and he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as thou will." Matthew, Chapter 26, Verses 39 and 40
Sometimes in our journey, the material scenery becomes disagreeable, and we seek the Father’’s will to obtain emotional relief. Often we feel no conscious emotional relief, and, if we do, it soon disappears as we continue our travel down the disagreeable road of life. What is the meaning of this? We are told that seeking the Father’’s will allows us to meet all human experiences acceptably. We also know that when we seek the Father’’s will, we find it. Why doesn’’t this bring emotional relief? Let us consider this analogy.
Parents have decided to take their child to Disney World for a birthday present. The child is very enthusiastic about going and wants to know when they can leave. The parents tell the child that they will have to wait a couple of days before they can depart. To the child this seems like a long time, and the child is anxious to begin. Finally the day arrives and they begin their trip. As they drive through familiar territory on their way to the interstate highway that will take them to Disney World, the child is patient and excited. As soon as they leave familiar surroundings, the child begins to become impatient, constantly asking, ““how long before we get there?”” and ““are we there yet?”” Finally the parents find a way to distract the child so that the child is unaware somewhat of time passing. The child’’s inquiries become less and less frequent.
We observe that as children get older they are able to become more patient with delays. This is because their maturity level is increasing, and their subjective consciousness of the passing of time becomes less and less. "There is a direct relationship between maturity and the unit of time consciousness in any given intellect. The time unit may be a day, a year, or a longer period, but inevitably it is the criterion by which the conscious self evaluates the circumstances of life, and by which the conceiving intellect measures and evaluates the facts of temporal existence." As adults, we are able to handle most of the routine experiences of life with an acceptable level of patience in the face of delay. But when a given experience of life becomes protracted, we find the need to be patient extremely difficult. The experience must run its course whether long or short. We cannot escape from it; we must travel along that particular road until it gives way to something else.
In our attempt to deal with the stress of the experience, we seek the Father’’s will in hopes of obtaining some conscious emotional relief. But experience has taught us that seeking the Father’’s will, while providing encouragement and stamina, does not provide relief from the experience. Our reaction to the experience is mainly an emotional one. After adjusting to the experience, emotions subside and we receive emotional relief even though the distressing experience continues.
When we seek the Father’’s will in a difficult situation, the Father reveals the part of his character that we need in order to master the experience morally and spiritually. Thus, in the midst of the trying experience he provides tranquility of spirit and divine stability. He gives us hope and patience, with the assurance that we will get through the experience morally and spiritually intact. So we should always seek the Father’’s will when we are confronted with a difficult experience. Jesus demonstrated to us how to deal with difficult situations in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus realized that he was going to be killed, and his humanity shuddered at this thought. He said that his soul was very sorrowful even to the point of death, but rather than panic, he sought the Father’’s will and submitted to that will. This strengthened him and restored his tranquility of spirit, his divine stability and emotional relief, so that he faced his enemies with divine poise and dignity.
It is the exercise of patience made possible by submitting to the Father’’s will, that removes the emotional strain from the experience. When we decide to submit to the experience rather than fighting it, our emotional reaction towards it diminishes. Again we see that Jesus demonstrated this when, after seeking the Father’’s will, he submitted to the experience in front of him. After doing this, he returned to his usual serene state. And we can follow him in our experiences by doing the same. We can seek the Father’’s will in the very face of the situation and accept the experience for what it is, and seek to extract the divine values and meanings from it. And we must remember that no matter how long or dark the night might be, it does give way to day.
This concludes today's message on understanding the relationship between the Father’’s will and emotional relief. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages of Light
By Dr, James Perry
The Father's Will and Emotional Relief
