Do I Have Enough Faith?

Imagine that you are walking along a dirt path in the woods admiring nature and communing with God. As you are enjoying God's presence, you see in the distance that a large tree branch has fallen across the path ahead. You reach the branch and realize that there is no way to pass unless the branch is moved. Thus, having the faith that God has the power to move mountains (let alone a tree branch), you fall to your knees and plead that God would remove the branch so that you can continue on your walk and get back to enjoying God's presence without hindrance. After a few uneventful minutes, you recall the story of the widow and the unjust judge (see Luke 18:1-8), and you decide that it is God's will for you to persevere in prayer until He answers. So you pray for 10 minutes. 30 minutes. 1 hour. 10 hours. ...

Praying According to God's Will

John says that when we pray according to God's will, then we know that we have what we asked for because God has heard our prayer (1 John 5:14-15). In other words, we know that God will give us what we ask for if we ask for something that's within His will. The question then is this: how do we know what God's will is for us?

God has told us what His will is for His children. It's not a mystery. He has revealed His will to us through His written Word (and through the example of Jesus, the living Word!). The problem is, we often are ignorant of God's word and are thereby ignorant of what His will is for us. If we want God to answer our prayers, we need to bring requests to Him that conform to the desires He has for our lives.

One way to pray according to God's will is to pray God's Word back to God. Moses did this when God threatened to wipe out all of Israel because of their idolatry (see Numbers 14). Praying Scripture (in application to a particular circumstance) is an interesting concept, as it motivates us to find out what God says He'll do for us (instead of us leaning on the popular phrase, "...if it be your will"). If we lean upon what God has said He'll do, then we can have confidence that we'll get what we ask for because God is faithful to His Word!

So what is God's will for us? To preach the gospel, to trust and obey Him in word and deed, to renew our minds, to seek the gifts of the Spirit, to love people, to be prosperous, to live a long life on the earth, to have the fruit of the Spirit, to have wisdom, to be free from the chains of sin, to be imitators of Christ. The list goes on. If we would truly know what God's will is for us, maybe it would change how we pray and what we pray for. I want to understand what God's will is so that I can live the way that God intended for me--His precious child--to live. Surely our Father in heaven will bless us if we ask for the desires of our heart, but how much more does God know what is best for us! Father, may you transform my desires to be more like yours!