Thy Will Be Done

"Jesus answered, 

'My teaching is not My own.  

  It comes from the One who sent Me.' "

John 7:16

I'm reading a biography of Harry Truman ~ have I mentioned that?  Oh yes, I told you the story about the dusty Bible...

Okay, well here's another lesson from Harry Truman.

As you probably know, Truman became President of the United States upon the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Though Roosevelt had been growing weaker, his death came as a surprise, not only to the country, but to the world.  FDR had been instrumental in the founding of the United Nations, which was due to officially come into existence in October of 1945.  But he died on April 12, thirteen days before his anticipated appearance at the founding conference on April 25.

The morning after Truman took the oath of office, he was meeting with the members of the cabinet, when the press secretary came in and said that the reporters outside wanted to know if the United Nations meeting in San Francisco would go on as planned.

Truman said it most certainly would.  He said it was what Roosevelt had wanted, and it was going to take place.  "And that," he said, "was the first decision I made as President of the United States."

That really struck me.  The first decision Harry S Truman made as President of the United States was to do exactly as his predecessor had planned.  In time, he would be called upon to make his own decisions, to rely on his own wisdom, but in the wake of FDR's sudden death, he knew the best thing was to carry on in the the path of the one who had greater knowledge of the circumstances. 

It made me think of Jesus' words while on earth.  While He never stopped being God, Jesus was a Man while on earth.  Doing the right thing was not always easy for Him; a fact we saw when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane.  ("He fell on His face and prayed, saying, 'O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.' " ~ Matthew 26:39)

I know, as a parent, sometimes it's hard to punish my children, because I love them and don't want them to be sad.  It's hard to know, sometimes, when to be merciful and when to be strict.  So I don't know if that was hard for Jesus, too, while He was on earth.   Maybe there were times when He had to rely on what He knew was His Father's will, rather than His own. 

Truman knew what FDR had planned; what his goal was for the United Nations.  So when the decision was his to make, he knew what steps to take. 

This is how we need to be.  Reading God's Word, knowing His will as best we can, so then when we are called upon to make a decision, to take a step ~ even one we didn't know we were going to have to ~ we'll know what to do.

~ "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,'

shall enter the kingdom of heaven,

   but he who does the will 

      of My Father in heaven." ~

Matthew 7:21