Praying In God's Will For God's Will To Be Done. Series

Praying within God’s will.

Tool of the faith is that in praying we hear God’s will, and as such, we long to live in his will and in doing so we check the motives for our prayers.

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray he taught them this; Matthew 6:5-15.

5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.[a]

10 Your kingdom come,

your will be done,[b]

on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread,[c]

12 and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.[d]

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

That is an interesting prayer.

There’s been a lot of prayers centered however around this line of another of Jesus teachings on prayer and it is this line: From John’s gospel 14:14, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

And this one: “’In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

Oh yes, prosperity teachers love those passages of Jesus teaching. Context is a wonderful thing, Jesus also taught this about the cost of discipleship and about following him. Matthew 8:22; "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

This just before John 14:14, Jesus said “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

So looking at prayer in context it is what we should be doing. If we are Bible believing people as I believe we are we know that God will answer prayer. God wants to show us his love for us through answering our prayers. Jesus is directing us as listeners to his words on prayer to focus our prayers and our lives on doing his will. Doing his will that God’s kingdom come and God’s will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Then God will be glorified and praised by new believers.

Just a bit of thinking about this “as it is in heaven” line. Being in heaven will for those of us on this side of things require something and I’ve been thinking a little about this during the week with the death of my Mother last week and the celebration of her life over the weekend. Getting to heaven and I firmly believe that God has a place for all of us there if we are saved by his atoning grace, but getting there requires leaving behind all that we have physically this side of heaven. We all go there materially broke, having cleared out her home I can tell you that all Mum possessed belong to others now. That and I am pretty sure there are no levels of material wealth in heaven. But God gives us all we need when we get there, including a new body, if you want to know more have a look at 2nd Corinthians 5:1-5.

So with that in mind what is it the God wants us to pray for? First and foremost he wants us to pray, here’s a question, how is your prayer life? Are you a worrier, the scriptures tell us “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phillippians 4:6-7. Again this is not about getting all you have prayed for but the peace that transcends all understanding that you receive by presenting your worries to God. I will at some stage expand on that thinking in another sermon. By the way because I’m not a doctor, if you are being treated for any form of anxiety, stick with the treatment. However, pray, God’s inner peace is amazing. This is all deep spiritual stuff. I am sure that God would much more likely want to respond to your prayer about how to get food to an orphan in India, than find you a carpark outside the whatever shop in the city you are going to. I find this as challenging for me writing it as it, as you may do hearing it.