Praying in the Will of God. Part 1

Have you ever listened to a child pray? Their prayers are very simple and direct. They don’t spend time worrying about whether or not their prayers are theologically correct. They don’t add flowery phrases and concern themselves whether their prayer is in the will of God or not. They have a need and they bring it to God expecting Him to hear and answer their prayer. Somewhere between childhood and maturity we have lost the simplicity and wonder of prayer.

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." 1 Kings 17:1 (NIV)

Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. James 5:17

Many people have asked how they could know the will of God in their prayers. They are sincere prayer warriors who desire above all else to bring glory to God in their prayers but they are uncertain about God’s will. Sometimes they add the condition to their prayers “if it be Thy will”. I believe that this is more often a statement of unbelief than praying in the will of God. I know that they are sincere in their prayers but they are also ignorant in their prayers. We do not have to be ignorant. We can come with confidence to the throne of grace.

If we examine the prayer life of Elijah we can learn about praying in God’s will from this prophet of fire. How did he know that it would be the will of God that there would be drought upon the land for three and one half years? I think the answer is in the fact that Elijah was a man of the Word of God. Elijah was not a cultured person but he was convinced of the reality of God and the truth of the Word of God.

In Deuteronomy we read, “Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the LORD's anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.” Deuteronomy 11:16 – 17 (NIV)

Elijah saw the people chasing after other God and he knew that the Lord had warned His people through Moses that if they were to pursue other god’s then there would be drought upon the land. When the Lord, through Joshua, led the people into the Promised Land He warned them about false gods. He knew that if they didn’t destroy all the idols in the land they would be tempted to worship them. It wasn’t that they would reject Yahweh but they would add other gods as the nations around them were doing. They believed that if one god was good then two were better. This is called syncretism, that is to reconciled or fuse different beliefs. This is happening in our day. People are not knowledgeable about the Word of God so they add to their prayers phrases and ideas that are not biblical.

Continued tomorrow LW.