05/19/2019
Do you get what you pray for? Does God answer you word for word in all those things that you would have Him do in your prayers? Our prayers and God’s will do more than just go hand in hand; their fingers are interwoven so tightly that these two hands are inseparable. This determines the success of our prayer lives. So how we pray should be exactly as we should live... in the will of God.
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”
1 John 5:13-14 ESV
Over the course of my life I have asked for a great many things; many of which were prayed with total disregard for the will of God. It took many years for the child that first came to God, and accepted Jesus as His savior, to grasp the fact that there are three types of things we ask for. We ask for things that are in perfect accord with the will of God, we ask for things that are insignificant and are neither consequential nor inconsequential to the will of God, and then sometimes we ask for things that are contrary to the will of God, and often they are things contrary to His very person. This revelation taught me how to anticipate the answer to my prayers, but more than that it taught me to pray as Jesus told us to pray... by seeking God’s presence, and His will first in all of our prayers.
“Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:9-10 ESV
When we pray within the will of God we do so in confidence. When I was a young man I loved to hunt quail with bird dogs... pointers. There was nothing more thrilling to me than to see a dog almost fall over as he locked into a point with his nose pointing at where the quail was hiding, but if a dog pointed and then began t ease forward stop on point, and then ease forward again I knew that the bird was either gone, or running along the ground, and my confidence level dropped. However, if I was hunting with a brace of dogs and the second eased up to the first one and upon catching scent of the bird froze into a point as well... this gave me great confidence that I was about to shoot a quail for dinner. This is similar to our praying in the will of God. Quite often we know that we are in the will of God; we know it because we have been here before, or that we sense it so strongly within our spiritual selves that it freezes us in point, but sometimes it comes as we ease forward thinking we know what it is until at last the Lord reveals it more perfectly to us. When we pray like this then we are a lot like the second dog who comes to reinforce the first (the Holy Spirit)... we are reaffirming the will of God by our prayers... our desires.
“And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done."”
Luke 22:41-42 ESV
Then there are those things we pray for that seem inconsequential to the will of God, and that He should be able to grant us without any effect on His will. You know these prayers... you may have prayed for a piece of candy as a child, asked that someone would call so that you knew they were alright, prayed for traffic to be light so that you weren’t late to work... there are so many. If truly inconsequential to His will, God can answer these prayers just to please us and it has little to no impact on the big picture of His will for our lives, but sometimes our nearsightedness keeps us from seeing the true impact these things have on His will. A good example of this type of prayer are those we call “breath prayers”.. the prayers we pray in the heat of the moment like when someone suddenly steps off the curb in front of our moving car and we instinctively swerve to miss them as we say aloud “Jesus!” Have you understood these to be prayers? Well they are, and they leave little time to discern God’s will.
Finally there are those that are outside the will of God for us, or contrary to His very person. Sometimes we desire something in our lives that is totally different from what God would like to have happen. Maybe we are praying to pass an admission test for a certain program at school. We want to be a lawyer so badly, or want to enter into some other field of study, but it is God’s will that we enter our working lives as a healer of bodies, or souls. Maybe he wants us to be a doctor, a nurse, or a pastor... or perhaps we have our sights set on divinity school, but He has other plans for us... working in a mill where we are to witness to others. Asking God to reveal His will to us allows us to pray as we should, and often means that in the process we have to let go of our personal perception of life, our own will, so that His will can be done. Then finally there are those things we ask for that are contrary to His very self... asking Him to protect you in a lie, or to provide you with something out of pride or selfishness... this list is long as well. God can’t do those things that promote sin, or which tolerate it.
So knowing God’s will for us is paramount to how we should pray, and in direct relationship to the answers we receive. So how do we really know we are praying within His will... first we ask Him to reveal His will to us, then, when we think we know His will we test it against His Word. Thirdly, we ask ourselves “Will this glorify God!”, and finally we look for resistance from the Holy Spirit within us. We may not physically be at ease when praying for God’s Will to be done, but we can be certain that it will ultimately be good. You see, often the answer we receive is not what we expect... sometimes it seems contrary, but turns out to be much more...
“But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers." And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, "Arise and eat."”
1 Kings 19:4-5 ESV
This is the prayer of Elijah as Jezebel sought to kill him. He prayed for the relief of death, and yet received an Angel to feed him, and much later his life ended when he was taken into heaven without dying at all. Has God ever seemed to ignore your desire, but then given you more than you could have ever imagined? Quite often the silence of God ends in a shout of glory!
As we pray we need to understand these things... praying in God’s will insures us of His promised answer; praying for things contrary to God’s Will are met with disappointment, and those things of little apparent consequence regarding the will of God may or may not be provided to us depending on their longer range implications regarding His will.
So seek God’s will as the first step in any prayer, expect an positive answer when praying within it, and know that He can’t give you those things that are contrary to His will and Hid person. Understanding this will lead you into a more satisfying prayer life, and strengthen your faith and relationship with God as well.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the will you have for my life, and for freely revealing that will to me. Holy Father, I pray that I will remain in your will always, and that my desires continuously reflect yours. Teach me to consult you always regarding your perfect plan for me, and give me inner peace as I follow it. Forgive me Lord when I wander from you, and when I pray for things that satisfy my own will without regard to yours. Lead me by your Word, Jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit, so that I walk in perfect accord with your will throughout my journey with you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who has an infallible will and plan for my life. Praised be your Name, your goodness, and your merciful grace as you hear my prayers. In your promise and provision I pray that your will be done, and your glory abounds forevermore.
Rich Forbes