That’s where I want to be — inside the will of God. Sure, the temptation will come along periodically where I might be enticed to something that I know is not of God, but all I have to do is play the tape forward and see where it leads. And it’s never anywhere I want to be.

Where I want to be is inside the will of God. The older I get, the more I understand that God knows what I need better than I do. God also knows what is at the heart of my desires. He knows that giving me everything I want in the moment I ask for it would absolutely destroy me. I often don’t know what to ask for, and more often than not, I can’t see the consequences of the things I want.

So more and more, my prayer is less and less about “God, give me” and more and more “Thy will be done.”

Being inside the will of God is the safest place I know to be, even in the midst of pain and suffering. I’d rather have Jesus and nothing else than to have everything under the sun that this world has to offer and not have Jesus. Period.