Source of Peace
True happiness and peace arise from the harmonious agreement between our wills and the will of God, achieved through obedience and the conquest of self-will.
Mary Wilder Tileston preaches on the importance of fearing the Lord and walking in His ways, emphasizing that true happiness and well-being come from aligning our will with God's will. She highlights that the key to a divine life and perfect happiness lies in obedience to God's will, rather than in worldly knowledge or speculation. Tileston stresses that the ultimate source of misery is self-will, and the path to blessedness is found in surrendering our wills to God, which brings rest and peace.
Text
Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways . . . Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
PSALMS 128:1,2
WE think it a gallant thing, to be fluttering up to heaven with our wings of knowledge and speculation; whereas the highest mystery of a divine life here, and of perfect happiness hereafter, consists in nothing but mere obedience to the Divine will. Happiness is nothing but that inward sweet delight, which will arise from the harmonious agreement between our wills and the will of God. There is nothing in the whole world able to do us good or hurt, but God, and our own will: neither riches nor poverty, nor disgrace nor honor, nor life nor death, nor angels nor devils; but willing, or not willing, as we ought.
RALPH CUDWORTH
The one misery of man is self-will, the one secret of blessedness is the conquest over our own wills. To yield them up to God is rest and peace. What disturbs us in this world is not "trouble," but our opposition to trouble. The true source of all that frets and irritates, and wears away our lives, is not in external things, but in the resistance of our wills to the will of God expressed by external things.
ALEXANDER MACLAREN
Sermon Outline
- The Source of Peace
- The Misery of Self-Will
- The Secret of Blessedness
- The Source of Peace
- Rest and Peace through Obedience
- Overcoming Opposition to Trouble
Key Quotes
“Happiness is nothing but that inward sweet delight, which will arise from the harmonious agreement between our wills and the will of God.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“The one misery of man is self-will, the one secret of blessedness is the conquest over our own wills.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“What disturbs us in this world is not 'trouble,' but our opposition to trouble.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
Application Points
- We must yield our wills to God and seek to harmonize them with His will to find true happiness and peace.
- Our opposition to trouble is what disturbs us, not the trouble itself, so we must learn to overcome our resistance to it.
- Conquering self-will is the secret to blessedness and the source of all that frets and irritates us.