Praying God’s Will
By Emily Rose Massey
“And this is the confidence that we have toward [God], 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 that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15, ESV).
Recently, a sister in Christ approached me at church before the service started and handed me a book. She told me it had impacted her in such a way she could not stop recommending it to others. What she didn’t know (nor did I at the time), is that this little book on prayer was actually an answer to prayer for me. As someone who was considered a “prayer warrior” for many years, I found my prayer life on life support these last few years, and I couldn’t quite fully put the puzzle pieces together as to why. This book seemed to help me complete the big picture of my prayer problem.
To be sure, my understanding of prayer has always been simply talking to my Heavenly Father. But as I began to grow in my theology and understanding of His attributes, especially His sovereignty, I saw the importance of remembering to come humbly and boldly to the throne of grace. I recognized my need to bring Him my requests, petitions, and supplications. I had been taught for many years to decree and declare what I believed needed to happen in my life through a faulty understanding of His promises from scripture taken out of context to fit my desires. Again, as I grew in my walk with the Lord, I began to realize my understanding of what Biblical faith is and what it is not. Faith is trusting in Christ alone. It is not viewing faith as a force that could be wielded to achieve certain results if I just said the right phrases or right scriptures “in Jesus’ name.” Ultimately, with that view of prayer, my confidence was in myself at the end of the day, and not in God. I assumed to know the will of God outside of the Word of God in context. We can’t just cherry-pick a verse and expect it to mean whatever we want it to mean. This faulty view of hermeneutics (how we interpret the scriptures) can impact the way we view the Lord. Thus, impacting our communication with Him.
In 1 John 5:14-15, the Apostle John tells us:
“And this is the confidence that we have toward [God], 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 that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15, ESV).
Intersecting Faith and Life:
This book which was gifted to me offered a method of prayer I had never thought of before: using the scriptures as a springboard to pray and a structure to ensure that my prayers would be guided by the will of God. Instead of saying the exact words in a passage, simply just allow the verses to guide prayerful words. What better way to ask the Lord according to His will than to use His own words to guide our prayers? This method helps us from getting stuck or allowing our minds to wander. It also prevents us from praying the same prayers over and over again, which can lead to boredom or feeling as if we aren’t growing in the spiritual discipline of prayer. So many Christians struggle with prayer and feel like a failure, but in all actuality, the method we are using may be causing the problem. It’s easy to give up on something when we feel stuck or like a failure, but we must seek to daily approach our Father. Prayer reminds our hearts of our deep dependency upon Him. We have been given the beautiful gift of the scriptures to fuel our communion with the Lord. Where studying scripture is our breathing in as our minds are renewed, prayer is our breathing out as our connection with the Lord grows deeper. Keeping the Bible, where we find the perfect will of God, at the center of it all, may just be what we need to keep our confidence in Him alive.
Further Reading:
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