According To His Will

             This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. (I John 5:14)

 

          Continuing to think in terms of how God may think, in hopes of learning to pray more effectively. Often, when we think of this verse, we think in about God’s little will for our little lives and what God may want to do for us in those little lives. How often does “God’s will for us” have almost nothing to do with anything but us? I don’t suggest that it’s wrong for us to take our cares and concerns to God. We’re commanded to do that.

          But, we can pray for the same thing in two ways. We can pray that we find a job that meets our needs, or that our health improves, or that He would bless us and believe that it is God’s will for these things to happen. And we should. But would those prayers be a little different from prayers that God would use us to accomplish His will or use us to bless others? Or, taking my favorite prayer request of “Wisdom, direction, and attitude…” What if I meant wisdom to help others, direction to do His will, and to have the attitude which Jesus demonstrated we reviewed recently?

What if our prayers for ourselves weren’t all about us?  What if our prayers for that person who is sick wasn’t just that they would recover, but that their recovery might lead to others glorifying God? As I thought about these things this morning during my prayer walk, I was inspired to pray that God would get my books into the hands of those who might be influenced – and that if there is nothing in them that He can use for His purposes, that they effectively disappear. That’s a terrifying prayer, because I’d really like them to provide me with an supporting income. But what if that is praying “according to His will”?