According to His Will
July 24
According to His Will
Matthew (Tolu) Olowoyeye
Founder · The Berean
1 John 5:14
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
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John gives us a real and grounded confidence in prayer, but notice carefully where the confidence is placed. It is not that God will give us whatever we want, but that "if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." The aim of prayer is not to bend God's will to ours, but to align our will with His. And within that alignment lies an unshakeable assurance: when we ask what God wants, He hears, and the next verse adds that we then "have the petitions that we have asked of Him."
This protects us from two errors. It guards us from the false teaching that treats prayer as a technique for getting whatever we name, as though faith were a force that compels God. And it guards us from despair when prayers are answered differently than we asked, for a loving Father who knows best will sometimes, in mercy, decline to give us what would harm us. The great work of prayer, then, is less about changing God's mind and more about discovering and desiring His will, until what we ask and what He wills become one.
Pray boldly, but pray "Your will be done," and let that be your deepest confidence.
Take Into The Day
As you bring your requests to God today, hold each one open before Him with the words, "according to Your will." Seek not to bend His will to yours, but to align your heart with His, and rest in the confidence that He hears.
Prayer
Father, I want to ask according to Your will, not merely to get my own way. Where my desires are wrong, change them; where they are right, grant them. Teach me to pray "Your will be done," and to rest in the confidence that You hear me. Amen.
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