Day 106

Praying God's Will

"In this manner, therefore, pray: 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.

Most of us can repeat the Lord's Prayer by heart and often are led to do so in a church setting.  But is it just something we say without really believing?  Do we really want God's will or our's?  Jesus gave it to us as an example of how to pray.  Praying God's will is a way of submitting to His plan and purpose for our lives.  Most of the time we aren't really desiring His will even though we say we are......we want our way.

One of our pastors read this quote in his message one day:  "When you ask something of God He will either give you what you ask, or He gives you what you would have asked for if you knew everything He knows".  Now that is a profound statement.  God knows everything and the outcome of all things right?  So why don't we trust Him in our praying?  Instead we beg Him to answer our prayer insisting on our will. 

Or maybe we pray God's will in a certain situation but we aren't really pleased with His answer so we want to change it in some way.  I have often found that to be my thought process.  I am praying Lord please do it my way, then I will be satisfied.

In Matthew 26: 39 Jesus gave us another example of praying for God's will.  It reads, "He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, 'O My Father if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will". Christ voluntarily surrendered His will to His Father.  His desire was for the cup to pass but He was willing to deny Himself and take up the cross.  How about you, will you lay aside your will in order to have His perfect will in your situation?

Most of the time we start whining when things don't go our way in the least little thing much less life changing circumstances we face. As believers we are privileged to come directly to the throne of grace knowing He hears us. We have a promise in His Word that if we ask in His will He will hear us.  "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us" 1 John 5:14.

Pray with confidence today that His will shall be accomplished.  Never insist on your way but trust Him in His.  For instance we may pray for the healing of a person or for their life to be prolonged only to watch them suffer greatly in the days they have left. Or we may insist on our will and when God gives it to us we may discover that our lives may have been better had we given the end results to Him instead of insisting on our own way.  We may resist His will to take our young child home only to see them walk away from the Lord in later years or suffer in some way.  Surrender your all to Him today for He knows best and sees the whole picture in your situation.  It is a matter of trust.