Acts 16:1-10 / John 15:18-21
God has a plan for each of us. But it is not only God who has a plan for us. The evil one also has a plan for us. Whose plan we want to follow depends on what we want in life.
But more than what we want in life, we also should know what each plan has to offer and what each plan entails.
The evil one offers us a life of pleasure and to fulfill our desires. It means that we surrender our wills to the evil one and to be his instruments of evil and wickedness.
God offers us a life of blessings so that we can walk in His ways and follow His paths. But it means that we surrender ourselves to do God's will and to accept suffering for the forgiveness and salvation of mankind.
And we must also realize that the suffering we face may not be something we deserve because we did something wrong and hence we suffer for it.
It may be something adverse that just comes upon us and pulls down our joys and happiness and whatever good feeling we might have.
Yet this should not come as a surprise. Jesus said in today's gospel: If the world hates you, remember it hated me before you ... because you do not belong to the world, because my choice withdrew you from the world, therefore the world hates you.
So obviously, God's plan for us may not look so pleasant nor pleasing. But it is a plan for our happiness on earth as it will also be in heaven.
Let us trust in God's plan for us and accept our sufferings for the love of God.