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We all have our loved ones, and it is expected of our loved ones to make demands on us. For example, parents demand that their children study well; husbands and wives demand that their spouses be faithful. The wife might tell her husband, “I cannot live without you,” or “I need to be nurtured by you.” The children may often hear from their parents, “You must study well so that you may have a bright future.”
But sometimes, at the back of these comments and pieces of advice, there is a need. For example, parents want their children to study because they want to be proud to have their children accomplish something. Or married people want their spouses to be faithful because it is good for their emotional security. Or we can make friends, and tell our friends to do this or do that, but sometimes our real motivation for this is to hold our friends by the neck and make sure that they will be loyal to us, in good times and in bad.
In other words, sometimes our loved ones make demands on us, but the end result of the demand is really for their own betterment, not ours. But when God tells us not to worry, when God tells us to be committed to Him, to abandon ourselves to Him, I tell you, God will not benefit from that. God does not need us to surrender to Him. God will not gain anything from the good that we will do. When God tells us to be committed to Him, to surrender to Him, to stop worrying, it is not for the good of God, it is for our good. And that is how good God is to each of us.
Our loved ones, our superiors in the Church, our friends, our elders can make demands; but sometimes they make demands for their own good. When God makes demands on us, it is completely for our good. If you don’t surrender to God, if you don’t make God the first and the last in your life, God will not be affected. You will be affected.
Everything that God asks us to do is not for His sake, but for ours. That is how much God loves us. He creates demands not for Himself, but for our own good. Let us thank Him for such goodness.
FATHERLY ADVICE
Mt 6:24-34
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