Praying According to God’s Will

I still feel like I may not continue with the study of Ecclesiastes right away. Instead, I decided to do some devotionals based on the verse of the day from the Tecarta Bible Application. Now, the verse of the day is 1 John 5:14-15 which says:

¹⁴ And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. ¹⁵ 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. (ESV)

This is what prayer is. God isn’t a genie that He grants wishes regardless. True, Jesus is Savior but He’s also Lord. It’s always Jesus Christ as one’s personal Lord and Savior. The relationship is intensely personal. Prayer is supposed to change me, not change God. Clives Staples Lewis or C.S. Lewis had a quote that said, “Prayer doesn’t change God. It changes me.” This is where the prayer is being said.

We need to talk about the Lord’s prayer in its context. The Lord’s prayer is found in Matthew 6:6-15 and Luke 11:1-13. What would be the anatomy of the Lord’s prayer? For some reason, Luke 11:1-13 has some words not found in Matthew’s account. We put two and two together and we realize the prayer has these words, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” We will soon have the Millennial Kingdom which will be succeeded by the Eternal Kingdom after the Great Whtie Throne Judgment hits all the unsaved. Right now, the duty is to do God’s will on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Every prayer is focused on this–“You will be done, Lord!”. It’s not you will be done but give me John when John is the unbeliever. The apostles in Luke 9:54 had James and his brother John wish for fire to come down from Heaven. Jesus then rebuked them because it wasn’t in God’s will. Praying for harm to befall others isn’t good. How many times have I ended up displeasing God when I actually wished harm over somebody I hated for very petty reasons? If what’s being prayed for isn’t aligned with God’s will–the answer is always a no.

I believe the same thing can be applied to praying for unsaved loved ones and for unsaved enemies. I feel the doctrine of TULIP may explain something. Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, and irresistible grace may help answer why this prayer isn’t always answered. Romans 3:10-19 says no one really seeks after God. John 6:37-66 tells us that no man comes to the Lord Jesus except God the Father draws them. Christians are told to pray for people and share the Gospel. However, only God does the choosing. All Christians can do is evangelize and pray for the lost.

Prayer should be centered on this–the sovereignty of God. That’s why I felt TULIP or Calvinism (a nickname given to Reformed Theology) has become my current view. Prayer is focused on Who God is. If God says no then He means no. An unsaved loved one getting saved or not even depends on God’s sovereignty. Left alone, the sinner doesn’t seek God. Instead, God seeks the sinner. The Lord Jesus chose the 11 saved, not the other way around, This should be the mindset–His will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.