The believers' prayers are not like cards dropped into a suggestion box or letters written to a politician; those communications might be ignored for months, perhaps never answered nor even given serious consideration. God, on the other hand, always cares about the prayers of His children, and He always hears their cries. "But know that the LORD has set apart the godly man for Himself; the LORD hears when I call to Him" (Psalm 4:3).
A major reason that a believer can pray confidently to God
is that Jesus has told him he can. In human experience, this is like someone
who directs a friend to a source of help; the friend does not know the potential
helper, but is instructed to say, "So-and-so told me to ask you." The
helper then gives help, not because of the merits of the one asking, but based
on the reputation and authorization of the one who suggested the contact. Jesus
says that believers can come to the Father in this way. "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father
may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13).
God can do some amazing things through prayer. The truth is
that believers do not understand or anticipate all that God is able to do.
There are prayers that believers never pray because they cannot comprehend the
level to which God can answer. They do
not even imagine to ask for what God is entirely capable of doing. "Now to Him who is able to do far more
abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works
within us" (Ephesians 3:20).
There are believers who want to take illegitimate advantage
of prayer, seeing prayer as a blank check with which to ask for (and expect to
receive) anything they want. Prayer does not work that way. God will not
fulfill every selfish or misguided request from His children; He will, however,
answer every request that is in accordance with His will. "This is the confidence which we have before Him, 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 which we have asked from
Him" (I John 5:14-15).
Here is where prayer can seem a little confusing or
challenging. How does the believer know what God's will is? The truth is that
some situations are so complicated that a believer could not possibly know what
the answer should be. God offers hope even for this scenario. "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let
him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will
be given to him" (James 1:5).
In situations where wisdom is slow in coming or when God
chooses to keep the believer in uncertainty, the Christian can still pray for
what is on his heart and for what he desires or believes the answer to be.
Jesus offers an excellent example of heart-felt yet submissive prayer. As Jesus
prayed in agony in the garden, He asked, "My
Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as
You will" (Matthew 26:39).
While I appreciate all of the above truths, there is one
truth that recently has been especially precious to me. In my life context, I
find myself knowing neither what God's will is nor what my own desire is. At
times evidence and yearning stack up on one side; later everything will seem to
support the opposite. Just to introduce some of the factors, I don't know if I
should continue doing what I am doing, seek to get back into teaching, or do
something completely different. Neither do I know if I can best serve God as a
single lady or whether my service would be enhanced with the blessing of
marriage.
At times it seems that marriage to the right person would
give me a platform for ministry, and at other times it seems that being single
allows me time to devote to ministry. Sometimes I desire to teach again and be
part of something that really matters, and at other times I wonder if I have
the energy to teach again. Perhaps God wants me to return to vocational
Christian ministry, but then again maybe He wants me in a secular job that
allows me time and resources to invest in other types of outreach. Maybe being
married would provide some areas of support that would make me more effective
in ministering to others, but maybe it would limit my compassion and
effectiveness by making me less dependent on God. Maybe all of these things are
relatively inconsequential, and I should be praying only for God to develop His
character in me.
So often I find my heart strongly directed toward one or
another of these scenarios, and I want to plead with God to do the particular
thing that seems like it must be the right answer. Then with a little time, one
of the other options seems to be the overwhelmingly correct one. The best I
know to do is to keep my heart tender to God, to keep doing what He has shown
me to do, to explore possibilities that He brings across my path, and to rely
on this final encouraging truth. "In
the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray
as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep
for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is,
because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God"
(Romans 8:26-27).
The Holy Spirit is my intercessor; He meets with God on my
behalf. He knows what God's will is, and He prays for me as I ought to be
prayed for in each situation. I can want to do God's will with all my heart. I
can fervently pray for what I believe to be God's will. I can humbly submit to
God's overriding of my desires. Having done all of those things, I still might
not know what God wants. Part of my weakness is that even my prayers are weak. I
don't know how to pray, but the Spirit prays the best things for me even when
my most sincere efforts fall short.
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