Lord, Teach Us To Pray! Part 88

Answered Prayers continued...

When our will differs from the will of God, it is our will that must change and not God’s will. Simplistic as the previous assertion might seem to some, it is nevertheless vital if we are to walk in the light of God’s word, doing His will, and not hindering His plan for our lives.

It is utter folly to expect God’s will to change when it differs from our own. God is not in the accommodating business, and His desire has never been to accommodate our predilections, peccadillos, or penchants.

Yes, God says, ‘this is the way it is, this is what I desire’ and by right and by His very nature, He expects it to be so.

Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

So, on the one hand we ought not to be conformed to the world, on the other we ought to have been transformed by the renewing of our mind. By joining these two together, we come to know the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, proving it only once we have adhered to it, and continued in it.

From the onset we understand that the will of God is different from our will, the will of the world, or the will of the devil. Not only is it incumbent upon us as individuals to discern the difference between our own will and the will of God, not only is it incumbent upon us as individuals to know that the will of God and that of the world will be in diametrical opposition to each other, we must live out the will of God, and prove what is His good and acceptable and perfect will.

We have no choice but to submit to the will of God. We have no choice but to accept the will of God, and though the world might try to detour us, though the will of the flesh or the will of the enemy might attempt to superimpose itself upon the will of God, in knowing what is that perfect will of God and submitting to it, we are certain of our destination, as well as the path upon which God is leading us.

When Jesus prayed in the garden, and prayed to be spared what He knew He was about to suffer, He submitted to the will of the Father when He uttered those fateful words, ‘not My will, but Yours, be done!’

Jesus didn’t pray and intimate that if God couldn’t get Him out of His current predicament, or if it were not His will to do so He would do everything in His power to spare Himself the pain and suffering He was about to endure.

Jesus never took it upon Himself to circumvent the will of the Father if the will of the Father remained something He didn’t want to experience.

Jesus submitted to the will of God, even though the will of God meant His suffering, crucifixion and death.

Often times we go through trials, and after praying for God to spare us the trial we are going through and asking that His will be done, upon seeing that it is very likely His will that we are enduring the trial or adversity currently upon us, we attempt to do everything in our power to lessen it, or circumvent it altogether.

It is human nature. It is something every single one of us has been guilty of doing, other than Jesus. When Jesus prayed the Father’s will be done, He really meant it. When the hour was upon Him, He did not try to flee, to hide, to defend Himself, or to have His disciples fight the Roman soldiers on His behalf. Peter tried. He unsheathed his sword, and in the heat of the moment cut off a man’s ear, but Jesus rebuked Him and put the man’s ear back in its rightful place.

It’s hard. I’ll be the first to admit it’s hard. Sometimes submitting to the will of God seems like the hardest thing you may ever have to do in this life, because as often as not the will of God is in diametrical opposition with your own will. It is also a frequent occurrence that the will of God has a negative effect upon the flesh, humbling it, and showing it the true measure of its impotence.

We like to make plans, we like to peer into the future seeing ourselves there, doing better than we currently are. We like to imagine where we will be five years from now, or five months from now, or even five days from now, and it’s always thinner, healthier, younger looking, and with more money in our pocket.

Then when we have all our wonderful plans in place, when the future is bright, and success is only a matter of time, God steps in and throws a monkey wrench into the finite mechanism of our plans and before we know it, we’re nowhere close to where we had planned on being.

James 4:13-15, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’, whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, tomorrow we shall live and do this or that.’”

We are long-term people, with long-term plans, looking into the distant future, contemplating what will be, and yet, we are not certain of tomorrow. Not six months, not a year, not three years down the road, but tomorrow remains an elusive mystery to everyone but God.

Yes, we are seeing the signs of the times, we perceive the lateness of the hour by what is occurring all around us, but as far as being certain of tomorrow, unless God reveals it, no man can be certain of the next five minutes – never mind an entire twenty-four hour cycle.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.