What is God's Will?

Gospel: Mark 3: 31-35

What is the will of God to which Jesus refers?  Countless writers have led many astray by making the will of God a political program of one variety or another.  Still others have led many into scrupulosity with endless minutia offered in its application.  Most people have this false belief now that God has some specific plan for their lives that covers everything from whom they marry to what they will order for dinner tonight at a restaurant.  

Such writers must go down these rabbit holes because they want to avoid what God's will truly is for each one of us.  It is what so few want to do.  It is to show love and mercy to others just as we have received love and mercy from God.  This will of God seeks to have us live for others rather than ourselves.  All those other views of God's will cater to our egos and self-love.  But to live a life of mercy challenges us to our core.  It has us consider all our actions and decisions in this light of mercy and love.  

If someone appeals to our self-interest and ego in talking about God's will, they preach a false Gospel utterly alien to the message of Jesus.  If we are challenged to live mercy and love for others as Jesus lived and taught, then we are on the sure path of following God's will in our lives, a life that is to be lived not for ourselves but for others.