Praying in the will of God Part 3

I never got to post yesterday so this is a continuation from Tuesday.

2. Praying in the will of God.

How do we know from Scripture what the will of God is in our prayers? First, if we are praying for the salvation of anyone we can be sure that it is the will of God. The Bible tells us that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Does that mean that everyone we pray for will come to salvation? People still have a free choice to accept or reject the message. However, that does not change the fact that we can pray with confidence of the salvation of our friends and associates.

Second, if we are praying for the healing of another we can be sure that it is in God’s will. The Bible tells us that “by His stripes we are healed.” I know that many will say, “We prayed for healing and God allowed that person to die, or that person was not healed.” Just because God does not answer our prayers in the way that we want them answered does not mean that He has not answered our prayers. We must remember that it is about God’s glory and though we pray for healing we must always remember that above all else we want God to be glorified. One time a lady in our church told us that if God would only heal a man in our church who had cerebral palsy that many would come to know our Lord as their God and Saviour. As I thought about that I thought of another lady in our church that had been prayed for many times but was never healed. However, in her suffering she continued to glorify God in her life. Many times more people are brought to a saving knowledge of Christ by the testimony of His children in times of adversity rather than them being removed from that adversity. When we remember that it is about His glory and not our comfort then we can pray with confidence.

Third, we can be sure that if we are praying for ourselves or a fellow believer to grow in Christ and the knowledge of His will that it is in the will of God. We can have that same assurance if we are praying for unity, for families, for relationships and for our nation and national leaders. If you spend time in God’s Word you will know that we can come boldly to the throne of grace with these petitions.

However, if we come seeking our own comfort or our own happiness then we cannot find support for that in our study of Scripture. I have heard of people praying for a parking place so that they wouldn’t have to walk through the rain to go into a store. Such prayers are often selfish and not God honouring. How can such a prayer bring glory to God? It may be that they needed to leave that parking place for someone needier than themselves. We pray about financial needs because we want to live in comfort but there are millions in this world who go to bed hungry. Also some prayers are contradictory. It is evident when two sport teams which are playing against each other both pray to win thinking that their win will bring glory to God. Both teams cannot win so how do we reconcile that with the Word of God. It may be that one person is praying for a sunny day so that they can enjoy a picnic outdoors while another is praying for rain because the fields need rain. Does God answer these prayers? The answer may be yes but only if we are focusing on the answer to bring glory to God and not our own happiness. The answer may differ a great deal from our expectations.

We are also told to pray for workers in the harvest. We are to pray that open doors will be available so that the Word of God can be proclaimed throughout the world. We are to pray for our missionaries and our leaders. Many times we pray for them in a general way rather than being specific in our prayers. We should study the prayers of God’s people in the Bible to see how they were led to pray for others.

Continued tomorrow LW