Praying for God's Will

 

Over the last months I have been faced with the rapidly increasing spread of my cancer and the knowledge that my days on this earth are greatly numbered. I am transitioning to palliative care after finishing radiation to the latest lesions on my low spine. I, as well as many others, have prayed over the years for healing. Growing up as a child I was taught to always add "but Thy will be done" to my prayers, which I believe is a very biblical practice. I have thought of that addition to my prayers lately as I am well aware that it seems that God has chosen to not heal me physically until I arrive home in heaven.

Recently I spent a good amount of time praying fervently about something. I am not certain how that prayer was answered but I struggled greatly with the fact that I did not know if it was answered in the way I desired and thought best.   It made me very aware as I thought about my reaction that while I prayed for God's will to be done I really wanted God's will to be my will. That struggle caused me to think about how often we do that. We pray for God's will when we really want our own will.

Today I was contemplating one of my favorite Bible characters, Joseph. How different would his life have been if God had answered what his prayers likely were: to be rescued from his brothers, to be rescued from prison and on and on. Yet God had a much greater plan for Joseph; a plan that impacted not only Joseph but two nations and definitely brought glory to God. God likewise has a much greater plan for the answers to our prayers than we can even imagine!

R.C. Sproul in his book titled Joseph says this:

 When God vindicated his servant, he did it far above and beyond anything that Joseph could have asked or thought. That is God. That is the promise that's made again and again in the New Testament: if we are willing to endure suffering and humiliation for a season, God has promised a future for his people beyond what the eye has seen, the ear has heard, or the heart has imagined (see I Corinthians 2:9). We can't imagine the wondrous things that God has in store for his people who trust him in times of languishing in prison.

My hope and prayer for myself as well as for you is that when we pray for God's will to be done that we are given the faith to really desire it and be ready to accept it. And when God gives answers that are not what we hoped for, I pray for joy in the knowledge that His ways truly are the better way.

I Corinthians 2:9 “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”