Post by Cindy on Feb 5, 2016 10:43:58 GMT -5
After writing about asking the Lord for a better prayer life or more spiritual fruit in their life, I was shocked when someone replied saying that you should never ever ask the Lord for His Will to be done in your life or something horrible would happen to you. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read it, and then I remembered hearing someone tell me that very thing when I'd been praying aloud at church and they were horrified to hear me pray that very thing because they were then sure that something horrible would happen to me. Of course nothing horrible happened to me and I refused to "take it back" like they strongly advised me to.
So what's the Truth about this? Should you pray that or will something horrible happen if you do? The only way to know the answer to any of our questions is to find out what God's Word says about it. In this case we know through His Word that God does His Will in our lives all the time, and that He does so with the goal being for our good, not to harm us. There are a lot of scriptures that tell us exactly what God's Will is for our lives. Let's look at a few of those at it should give us some idea of what to expect when we pray that:
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;” (1 Thessalonians 4:3) To be sanctified means to be made holy. That certainly doesn't sound horrible, unless of course you have your heart set on sinning.
“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18) Again, nothing horrible about this one either. Not necessarily easy though, since being joyful and praying constantly is a command and not a suggestion.
“And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.” (2 Corinthians 8:5) This is nothing more then what we've always been taught, that we're to put the Lord first about everyone and everything in our lives, and then others before ourselves. Not easy, but again, nothing drastic or horrible either.
“Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” (Colossians 4:12) Interesting as this suggests that we're to always be in God's Will and when we aren't in His Will, it's because of sin in our lives. So why would someone not want His Will done in their lives unless they wanted to hold onto their sin?
“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” (Ephesians 5:17) Here we're told that we're supposed to understand what God's Will is for our lives. It's not supposed to be a mystery to us. Of course the only way that can happen is if we daily spend time in His Word and prayer.
“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20–21) Here we're told that God is a God of peace and that He will give us everything good so we can do His Will, which again removes any ideas of something horrible happening to us.
““My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34) Here we see that our Savior always did His Father's will and we know that we are supposed to pattern our lives after His. The next two scriptures should give us a very good reason for wanting His Will done in our life:
“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”” (Matthew 12:50)
““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) According to these scriptures, those who do His Will are truly saved, and those who don't, aren't. Which category would you prefer to be in?
The next two show us that it's normal to ask God to do His Will in our lives, at least by those who are His children:
“Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.” (Psalm 143:10)
“I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”” (Psalm 40:8)
This last one will show us again how to determine His Will:
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2) Our minds are renewed by His Word, and the more we are renewed and know Him and His Word, the more we will know His Will for us. That makes sense as it's in His Word that He tells us what His Will for us is, as I've shown with the above scriptures. As I said, there are many more, but these are a good representative of them.
There's other things to consider when we think about asking God to do His Will in our lives. The first that comes to my mind is what is our God like? Can we trust Him? His Word tells us straight out that God is a God of love and peace and that He loves us more then we can comprehend. We're told that when we're saved we become His children. No good parent is going to abuse their child in any way in order to make them behave. Yes, the child may be disciplined, but they won't be abused by a good parent and God is much better then the very best earthly parent there ever was. So why should anyone be afraid of Him? Would you be willing to tell the mother or father you love that you want their will done in your life if they had the power to make that happen? What do you suppose their will would look like? (assuming your parent was a good, loving parent of course). I can only speak for myself so I'll tell you what my will would have been if one of my children had said that to me before I was saved: I would have wanted them to grow up to be loving, responsible adults, who were willing to go out of their way to help others whenever needed, and I would have wanted them to know most of all how much I loved them. Of course I'd have wanted them to also be successful at whatever they chose to do in life too and to have a good loving spouse as well. If that's what a sinner would want for their child, then how much more would a loving God want for their child? Can anyone honestly believe He would want something horrible to happen to them???
We should however take into consideration what happened to His Son, our Savior, because that was indeed horrible and it was done according to God's Will. This is generally what causes people to say this, but sadly they haven't thought it all the way through. Yes, Jesus died a horrible death and it was God's Will. However, Jesus was not just a man, He was also fully God and it was also His Will as well as the Father's Will. Furthermore, WE were the reason for that will because of the sin that held us captive! If we hadn't been captive to sin, Jesus wouldn't have had to die that way and it wouldn't have been God's Will. So the culprit for that horrible death was our sin, and the purpose of it was to free us from that sin. For those of us who are saved, we are now free of that sin, so the only thing that needs to "die" in any sense of the word, is any sin or evil in our lives. Sin and evil bring strife, division, death and destruction every single time. Maybe not immediately, but sooner or later, that's what it brings. It's contagious and spreads like wildfire. So yes, God's will is that we be rid of all sin and evil in our lives. But God loves us and knows what we are made of. He knows how fragile we are. He doesn't smash the sin in our lives, but rather gives us more then enough time to discover it and repent of it.
Look at how long He gave the gentiles that weren't saved back in the old testament times. He gave one large group of them 400 years to repent! They didn't do so and so they were judged. But they weren't saved and we are. Therefore our sins have already been judged so we don't have to worry about that. Reflect on that for a moment: We don't have to worry about our sins being judged because they already have been. Or as Paul put it: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 8:1)
So the real question here is are you saved? Because if you are, then you have nothing to worry about if God does His Will in your life. Besides which, if you are saved, then He is going to do His Will in your life, whether you ask Him to or not. I should qualify that though by telling you that there are two different kinds of "God's Will". There is "His perfect will," which is what we want and what He wants for us, and there's "His permissive will," which is when He allows us to do what we want instead of His perfect will. And that's what people who are afraid of His Will are often going to get: their own will instead, which is imperfect and flawed and will ultimately bring them sorrow instead of the happiness they thought it would. Whereas God's perfect will, always works everything out for our good, bringing us more then we could ever hope for. An example I can think of demonstrating the difference might be a believer marrying someone that's not saved, that they think is great even though it's not God's perfect will for them. The marriage eventually brings them sorrow and perhaps winds up in divorce, or perhaps just brings them the many problems that kind of a marriage brings with it- either way it's not as good as what it could have been; or someone waiting and marrying the person who is also saved and is God's perfect will for them and winding up happily married for life, without all the extra problems that an unsaved spouse brings. Now please don't start defending marriage to an unsaved person. I've been there, so there's nothing about it I'm unaware of. The difference between these two examples should show us that God doesn't just want "good" for us but rather wants the very best for us, as any good earthly parent would as well. The difference is that being God, He knows the past and future, and knows what trouble we're bringing on ourselves when we're not in His perfect will. Therefore if you had to choose ahead of time, which would you want, the good, the better, or the very best?
Sadly, when something bad happens to us, we often immediately blame God and rarely think of Him when good things happen to us. While God is always in control, it's not His perfect Will every time something bad happens to us. God has not let us down. People have let us down. Sin has left it's evil mark in this world and corrupted it. Therefore when something bad happens to us, it's often simply because we live in a broken world, not because God is doing His will in our lives. However, if we know that we're living in unrepentant sin, then it's possible what we're being disciplined. This again isn't God's Will for us, we bring that on ourselves because we're not in His Will. Therefore being in His Will is good, being out of it, isn't. Being in His Will doesn't mean that nothing bad will happen to us, because as I said, we live in a broken world and right now, since we live in the last days. I don't know about you, but especially in these times, I'd much rather be sure I'm in God's Will then out of it!
When you're saved and know God's Word you know that God loves you and wants the very best for you. Why then would you be afraid of getting His very best? Or why would you even consider having something that's "good" instead of His very best for you? Especially when you know that often what we think is "good", turns out to not be so great in the long run. Knowing all of this, I choose to ask the Lord that His Will be done in my life. What about you?
So what's the Truth about this? Should you pray that or will something horrible happen if you do? The only way to know the answer to any of our questions is to find out what God's Word says about it. In this case we know through His Word that God does His Will in our lives all the time, and that He does so with the goal being for our good, not to harm us. There are a lot of scriptures that tell us exactly what God's Will is for our lives. Let's look at a few of those at it should give us some idea of what to expect when we pray that:
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;” (1 Thessalonians 4:3) To be sanctified means to be made holy. That certainly doesn't sound horrible, unless of course you have your heart set on sinning.
“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18) Again, nothing horrible about this one either. Not necessarily easy though, since being joyful and praying constantly is a command and not a suggestion.
“And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.” (2 Corinthians 8:5) This is nothing more then what we've always been taught, that we're to put the Lord first about everyone and everything in our lives, and then others before ourselves. Not easy, but again, nothing drastic or horrible either.
“Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” (Colossians 4:12) Interesting as this suggests that we're to always be in God's Will and when we aren't in His Will, it's because of sin in our lives. So why would someone not want His Will done in their lives unless they wanted to hold onto their sin?
“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” (Ephesians 5:17) Here we're told that we're supposed to understand what God's Will is for our lives. It's not supposed to be a mystery to us. Of course the only way that can happen is if we daily spend time in His Word and prayer.
“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20–21) Here we're told that God is a God of peace and that He will give us everything good so we can do His Will, which again removes any ideas of something horrible happening to us.
““My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” (John 4:34) Here we see that our Savior always did His Father's will and we know that we are supposed to pattern our lives after His. The next two scriptures should give us a very good reason for wanting His Will done in our life:
“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”” (Matthew 12:50)
““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) According to these scriptures, those who do His Will are truly saved, and those who don't, aren't. Which category would you prefer to be in?
The next two show us that it's normal to ask God to do His Will in our lives, at least by those who are His children:
“Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.” (Psalm 143:10)
“I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”” (Psalm 40:8)
This last one will show us again how to determine His Will:
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2) Our minds are renewed by His Word, and the more we are renewed and know Him and His Word, the more we will know His Will for us. That makes sense as it's in His Word that He tells us what His Will for us is, as I've shown with the above scriptures. As I said, there are many more, but these are a good representative of them.
There's other things to consider when we think about asking God to do His Will in our lives. The first that comes to my mind is what is our God like? Can we trust Him? His Word tells us straight out that God is a God of love and peace and that He loves us more then we can comprehend. We're told that when we're saved we become His children. No good parent is going to abuse their child in any way in order to make them behave. Yes, the child may be disciplined, but they won't be abused by a good parent and God is much better then the very best earthly parent there ever was. So why should anyone be afraid of Him? Would you be willing to tell the mother or father you love that you want their will done in your life if they had the power to make that happen? What do you suppose their will would look like? (assuming your parent was a good, loving parent of course). I can only speak for myself so I'll tell you what my will would have been if one of my children had said that to me before I was saved: I would have wanted them to grow up to be loving, responsible adults, who were willing to go out of their way to help others whenever needed, and I would have wanted them to know most of all how much I loved them. Of course I'd have wanted them to also be successful at whatever they chose to do in life too and to have a good loving spouse as well. If that's what a sinner would want for their child, then how much more would a loving God want for their child? Can anyone honestly believe He would want something horrible to happen to them???
We should however take into consideration what happened to His Son, our Savior, because that was indeed horrible and it was done according to God's Will. This is generally what causes people to say this, but sadly they haven't thought it all the way through. Yes, Jesus died a horrible death and it was God's Will. However, Jesus was not just a man, He was also fully God and it was also His Will as well as the Father's Will. Furthermore, WE were the reason for that will because of the sin that held us captive! If we hadn't been captive to sin, Jesus wouldn't have had to die that way and it wouldn't have been God's Will. So the culprit for that horrible death was our sin, and the purpose of it was to free us from that sin. For those of us who are saved, we are now free of that sin, so the only thing that needs to "die" in any sense of the word, is any sin or evil in our lives. Sin and evil bring strife, division, death and destruction every single time. Maybe not immediately, but sooner or later, that's what it brings. It's contagious and spreads like wildfire. So yes, God's will is that we be rid of all sin and evil in our lives. But God loves us and knows what we are made of. He knows how fragile we are. He doesn't smash the sin in our lives, but rather gives us more then enough time to discover it and repent of it.
Look at how long He gave the gentiles that weren't saved back in the old testament times. He gave one large group of them 400 years to repent! They didn't do so and so they were judged. But they weren't saved and we are. Therefore our sins have already been judged so we don't have to worry about that. Reflect on that for a moment: We don't have to worry about our sins being judged because they already have been. Or as Paul put it: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 8:1)
So the real question here is are you saved? Because if you are, then you have nothing to worry about if God does His Will in your life. Besides which, if you are saved, then He is going to do His Will in your life, whether you ask Him to or not. I should qualify that though by telling you that there are two different kinds of "God's Will". There is "His perfect will," which is what we want and what He wants for us, and there's "His permissive will," which is when He allows us to do what we want instead of His perfect will. And that's what people who are afraid of His Will are often going to get: their own will instead, which is imperfect and flawed and will ultimately bring them sorrow instead of the happiness they thought it would. Whereas God's perfect will, always works everything out for our good, bringing us more then we could ever hope for. An example I can think of demonstrating the difference might be a believer marrying someone that's not saved, that they think is great even though it's not God's perfect will for them. The marriage eventually brings them sorrow and perhaps winds up in divorce, or perhaps just brings them the many problems that kind of a marriage brings with it- either way it's not as good as what it could have been; or someone waiting and marrying the person who is also saved and is God's perfect will for them and winding up happily married for life, without all the extra problems that an unsaved spouse brings. Now please don't start defending marriage to an unsaved person. I've been there, so there's nothing about it I'm unaware of. The difference between these two examples should show us that God doesn't just want "good" for us but rather wants the very best for us, as any good earthly parent would as well. The difference is that being God, He knows the past and future, and knows what trouble we're bringing on ourselves when we're not in His perfect will. Therefore if you had to choose ahead of time, which would you want, the good, the better, or the very best?
Sadly, when something bad happens to us, we often immediately blame God and rarely think of Him when good things happen to us. While God is always in control, it's not His perfect Will every time something bad happens to us. God has not let us down. People have let us down. Sin has left it's evil mark in this world and corrupted it. Therefore when something bad happens to us, it's often simply because we live in a broken world, not because God is doing His will in our lives. However, if we know that we're living in unrepentant sin, then it's possible what we're being disciplined. This again isn't God's Will for us, we bring that on ourselves because we're not in His Will. Therefore being in His Will is good, being out of it, isn't. Being in His Will doesn't mean that nothing bad will happen to us, because as I said, we live in a broken world and right now, since we live in the last days. I don't know about you, but especially in these times, I'd much rather be sure I'm in God's Will then out of it!
When you're saved and know God's Word you know that God loves you and wants the very best for you. Why then would you be afraid of getting His very best? Or why would you even consider having something that's "good" instead of His very best for you? Especially when you know that often what we think is "good", turns out to not be so great in the long run. Knowing all of this, I choose to ask the Lord that His Will be done in my life. What about you?
!!
