As born-again Christians, we believe that God is in control
and that His will is done. Why, then should we pray?
We should pray because His Word commands us to (Psalm
62:8; Luke 11:9-10; 1 Thessalonians 5:17), as an act of
worship pleasing to Him as a sweet-smelling fragrance (Revelation 5:8;
8:3-4), and because it changes us. Our prayers should not be
directed toward changing God’s mind, since we know God does not change (Hebrews
13:8), but to align our mind and heart with the indwelling mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5).
God always answers the prayers of His children who are
right in their heart attitude toward Him (Isaiah 65:24), meaning
they are not coming in rebellion or lusting after the flesh (James 4:3),
but rather in humble submission, earnestly seeking God’s will and His face.
Sometimes He answers “Yes,” sometimes “No,” sometimes “Yes, but in the right
time,” and sometimes “No, because what I want to give you is even better than
what you have asked for.”
It pleases God to give good and perfect gifts to His
children (Luke 11:13), so if we ask Him to meet our needs in
accordance with His perfect will, we can expect to be blessed (John 15:7).
The clearest example of this is the sinner’s prayer, which is one prayer God will
always answer “Yes!” because it is His perfect will that all should be saved (2
Peter 3:9). When the lost person realizes he is a sinner, turns away
from his sin, and trusts in Christ as the Son of God, the perfect sacrifice for
our sins Who died on the cross, was buried, and rose again (1 Corinthians
15:1-4) that we also may have eternal life (John 3:16),
God will save him (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13).
However, the blessing we receive from prayer may not always
be what we had prayed for, and it may even seem to our limited vantage point to
be quite the opposite. When we ask for healing of our loved one who is sick,
and that person dies, we may despair that God has not heard our prayer or cared
enough for us to answer it as we had hoped. Yet if that person was saved, God
has indeed given him perfect healing and perfect peace in Heaven, and he will
use the situation to bring good into the lives of others in ways that we cannot
begin to understand until we reach glory (Romans 8:28).
Paul asked God three times to take away his “thorn in the
flesh,” a physical ailment that brought him great distress, but that kept his
pride in check. God said “No,” because the lesson Paul learned of God’s grace
being sufficient was a far greater blessing than physical healing would have
been. This lesson enabled him to rejoice and be fruitful even when imprisoned,
abandoned, and in other dire straits, because he was relying on God’s strength
instead of trusting in his own flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).
God the Father even said “No” to His own Son when Jesus
asked that if it were possible, that the cup of suffering would pass from Him,
yet the Son yielded to His Father’s will (Matthew 26:39).
God sometimes allows us to go through illness or other
storms of life because they bring us closer to Him. If we seek His perfect
will, He may sometimes calm the storm, as He did for His disciples in the boat
on the troubled sea (Matthew 8: 24-27). But at other times, His
perfect answer to our prayer may be to calm us instead, bringing us the peace
that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7) and the
fellowship of His suffering that conforms us to the image of His Son (Philippians
3:10).
As we pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, helping us
to pray in accordance with God’s will even when we don’t know what to ask for (Romans
8:26). He will teach us to trust Him (Proverbs 3: 5-6),
deepening our faith (Mark 11:22-24) as we accept that He knows
what we need before we ask Him (Matthew 6:8), and that He will
give us what is best for us (Jeremiah 29:11).
We may not always understand or appreciate God’s answer to
our prayers, for His ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9).
Yet He answers our prayers exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could ever ask
or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). Thank God for His infinite wisdom
and infinite love, for He answers our prayers in the best possible way!
Copyright 2011 Laurie Collett
Edited,
expanded, and reposted from the archives
No comments:
Post a Comment