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Including God’s Will in Our Prayers
Including God’s Will in Our Prayers
God invites us to appeal to Him to provide good things and to fix problems. “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). “Be anxious for nothing, but … let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6). “The prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick” (Jam. 5:14-15).
I believe very strongly that God responds to such prayers, intervening on earth on behalf of his children. But we must learn to include the will of God in those requests. How?
In the first place, by not asking for things it would be against God’s will for us to have. “If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14). “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures” (Jam. 4:3). It would be silly for a child to ask for a bazooka for his birthday, and it would be silly for a child of God to ask for items, experiences, and relationships God has defined as detrimental, even sinful. I’m thankful God knows how to give good gifts to His children (Matt. 7:11, Jam. 1:17).
Furthermore, by submitting to God’s decisions. God might say, “no,” or, “not yet,” to our deepest desires, even those that seem healthy and godly. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, God refused to remove Paul’s thorn in the flesh. In Matthew 26:39, God refused to take the cup of suffering from Jesus. God wasn’t in a withholding mood; in both cases, there was a higher, benevolent purpose. Both men accepted God’s will.
Finally, by identifying the real focus of God’s will—the victory of His kingdom—and praying for that to be accomplished. Many of the greatest prayers in the Bible have had little to do with perfunctory requests for physical health and safety, but rather a recounting of the eternal promises of God, and an appeal for God to bring them to pass. Hezekiah prayed for the salvation of Zion for God’s sake (2 Kin. 19:19). Daniel prayed for the return of the remnant for God’s sake (Dan. 9:15-19). Jesus prayed “Thy kingdom come” (Matt. 6:10). I’m sure you can think of many more.
Even the prayers for stuff listed above are, upon closer reading, more about obtaining eternal perspective than obtaining stuff. In 1 John 5:13, “eternal life” frames the reference of asking for anything. In Philippians 4:7, the “peace of God” is the real result of the making requests. In James 5:15, the elders are not just asking for healing, but forgiveness.
Matthew 21:21-22 is often quoted to show that a Christian can wield prayer like a magician’s wand. Jesus says, “If you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” Since God is greater than creation, I do not doubt He can answer any prayer I can put into words. But it might help us to notice that this image of mountains growing or being cast down is often used in the prophets to describe the victory of the kingdom of God over the kingdoms of earth (Zech. 4:7, Dan. 2:44-45, Isa. 40:4, Jer. 51:25, Rev. 8:8). In fact, the fig tree here likely represents a kingdom judged for its fruitlessness. Really, this passage is not so much about gritting my teeth hard enough in prayer, like Yoda raising the X-wing, to finally make that red Ferrari appear in my driveway. It’s more about asking God to act on His earth-shattering promises. Ellicott calls the mountain “an emblem of the strong consolidated power and institutions [of the world]” and says, “the power of God’s advancing cause would hurl the rooted mountains from their base. The power of faith would suffice to do this … to overthrow the long established evil customs of nations which corrupt the world.”
In any case, I am convinced I need to spend some time in prayer for myself (and others) asking for stuff and for health, but I need to spend more time in prayer asking God to help me use my stuff and my health to bring about His ultimate will. Perhaps in this way I might finally bring my will into alignment with His.
–John Guzzetta
