Prayer has
been on my mind for quite a while lately. The more we read the Bible,
the more we learn and grow. So many people, myself included, have
read isolated scriptures out of context. “Ask and you shall
receive” is one. Taken out of context this could be interpreted as
whatever you ask for, you get. But, as I said before, God is not a
genie in a bottle granting wishes. In order to maintain a close
relationship with God we must read His word. If we regularly read
God's word and study scripture, we learn we must ask for God's will.
1 John 5:14-15 tells us that God hears all our prayers. This is
the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything
according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears
us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
God dearly loves us and wants only the
best for us. His great, unfathomable love is shown by what he has
done for us. He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for
us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all
things? Romans 8:32.
In the garden of Gethsemane the night
before the crucifixion, Jesus prayed that the cup be taken from Him.
The cup represents separation from God. Jesus also said, AS YOU WILL.
Matthew 26:38-39
Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the
point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little
farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My
Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as
I will, but as you will.”
God's will for His own son!
Reading 2 Corinthians 2:9-12 gives some insight to the depth of God's
perspective. To adequately put it into human language is impossible.
That's why God gave us the Holy Spirit to interpret and give us
understanding. God has this grand design, a story consisting of all
the people ever created. Our lives intersect and meld together, with
man's free will in the story plot as well. However, as it is
written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no
human mind has conceived” the things God has prepared for those who
love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who
knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In
the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of
God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit
within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except
the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the
world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what
God has freely given us. Often our free will and refusal to obey
God gets in the way of His grand story, but He works it out for the
good of those who love Him.
When we pray asking for something, we must pray for God's will. He
knows best. He will answer our prayer in His way and in His timing.
If it's not His will, or is not good for us, He will not give it to
us. The Holy Spirit helps us know God's will, but sometimes he may
delay our understanding what is will is, in order to accomplish
something else in our life. John 16:13 speaks about knowing God's
will. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you
into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only
what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. For me,
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 is a clear illustration of God's will and how
it is always better that our will....because of these surpassingly
great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming
conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to
torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from
me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my
power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the
more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on
me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in
insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I
am weak, then I am strong. God places or allows thorns in our
lives to teach us and keep us dependent on Him.
