September 5th

God the End of Our Life
Seek ye, therefore, first the Kingdom of God.
(St. Matt. vi. 33.)



Our life is a circle: whence it first came, thither it must return. As we proceeded from God, so we must go back to Him if our life is to be a success. We can never find repose or lasting satisfaction in anything except God. As long as we do not tend to Him, we shall be fluctuating, inconstant, uncertain. Until we make Him the end of our life, we shall feel that we are wandering about in the dark.

What do we mean by making God the end of our life? We mean that to do His pleasure shall be the motive which shall be first and foremost, and that when there is a choice between God's pleasure and our own, when the two seem to be opposed, our disposition shall be to do God's will and not our own. In spite of the pain involved in giving up his own will, the man who makes God the end of his life will abandon it without hesitation, and so will draw nearer to God, his last end.

Every time we do this we break down a barrier between God and ourselves; we come nearer to the enjoyment of Him, we get a little closer to Heaven. The self-willed man is never satisfied; the man whose will is perfectly subjected to God is always happy. The Angels are always happy because they have no will but God's. If I want to find happiness in this world or the next, the first thing is to learn to submit my will to God's.

Pray God to break down your self-will at any cost.