4 Lent 07 C

The Mystery of Prayer and the Will of God

This is the fourth part of my five part sermon series on the Mystery of Prayer. I have talked about the Mystery of prayer and the Nature of God, the Mystery of Answered Prayer, and the Mystery of Unanswered Prayer. All of these are available on our website or by request. Today I want to talk about the Mystery of Prayer and the Will of God.

A little boy wanted $100 badly and prayed for two weeks but nothing happened.
Then he decided to write GOD a letter requesting the $100. When the postal authorities received the letter addressed to GOD USA, they decided to send it to President Bush.
The President was so impressed, touched, and amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a $5.00 bill. President Bush thought this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy.
The little boy was delighted with the $5.00 and sat down to write a thank you note to GOD, which read:

Dear GOD,
Thank you very much for sending the money, however, I noticed that for some reason you had to send it through Washington D.C. and, as usual, those idiots deducted $95.00!

Sometimes our prayers are like that little boy’s prayers. We ask for something without thinking about whether it might be God’s will for us to have that for which we have asked.

St. John writes these words in his first epistle. In chapter 5 beginning at verse 13 we read these words, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. And if we know that He hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of Him.”

John is saying here that if we ask anything in prayer according to the will of God, the request will be granted by God.

When we talk about the mystery of prayer and the will of God we must first ask, what can we know about the will of God?

We want to first look at what God has revealed about His will. We look in the Bible to see what God has revealed about His will. We know, for example, that His will is contained in his moral commandments. When God said, “Thou shalt not steal,” we know that his will is that we not steal. If you are a guy who is married, and you see a beautiful woman across the room, and you pray, “Lord, is it your will that I leave my wife and hook up with this woman?” The answer is, NO it is not His will, because He has revealed His will in His Word when he said, you shall not commit adultery. Is it God’s will that we give to the Work of God in His church? The answer is yes, because His word commands us to do that.

C. S. Lewis seemed fascinated by the questions posed by prayer, especially how a sovereign God listens to and responds to our prayers. He explored the topic in several of his books and many of his essays and letters. Here is how he set the problem, in a skeptic's voice:

“I don't think it at all likely that God requires the ill-informed (and contradictory) advice of us humans as to how to run the world. If He is all-wise, as you say He is, doesn't He know already what is best? And if He is all-good won't He do it whether we pray or not?”

Lewis replied that you could use that same argument against any human activity, not just prayer. "Why wash your hands? If God intends them to be clean, they'll come clean without your washing them … Why ask for the salt? Why put on your boots? Why do anything?" God could have arranged things so that our bodies nourished themselves miraculously without food, knowledge entered our brains without studying or teachers, umbrellas magically appeared to protect us from rainstorms. God chose a different style of governing the world, however, one which relies on human agency and choice.

The skeptic, then, is objecting not just to prayer but to the basic rules of creation. God made space, in the process granting the favored human species the "dignity of causation" (Pascal's phrase). God created matter in such a way that we can manipulate it, by cutting down trees to build houses and damming rivers to form reservoirs. He granted such an expanse of human freedom that we can oppress each other, rebel against our Creator, even murder God's own Son. When Jesus walked the earth he "could not do any miracles" in his home town because of the residents' lack of faith, an example of God's power disabled by unbelief.

Lewis suggests that we best imagine the world not as a state governed by a potentate but as a work of art, something like a play, in the process of being created. The playwright allows his characters to affect the play itself, then incorporates all their actions into the final result. Lewis explains, "For God forgives sins. He would not do so if we committed none … In that sense the Divine action is consequent upon, conditioned by, elicited by, our behavior." And if God takes our sins into account, why not our prayers?

Lewis sums up the drama of human history as one "in which the scene and the general outline of the story is fixed by the author, but certain minor details are left for the actors to improvise. It may be a mystery why He should have allowed us to cause real events at all; but it is no odder that He should allow us to cause them by praying than by any other method." Prayer is a designated instrument of God's power, as real and as "natural" as the power of gravitation or electromagnetic force.

Prayer, especially, brings together Creator and creature, eternity and time, in all the fathomless mystery implied by that convergence. I can view prayer as a way of asking a timeless God to intervene more directly in our time-bound life on earth. (Indeed, I do so all the time, praying for the sick, for the victims of tragedy, for the safety of the persecuted church.) In a process I am only learning, I can also view prayer from the other direction, as a way of entering into the rhythms of eternity and aligning myself with God's point of view, a way to desire while on earth what God has willed for all eternity, to harmonize my own purposes with the purposes of God. In prayer I ask for and gradually gain confidence in God's justice and mercy and holiness, despite contemporary events that might call those traits into question. I immerse myself in the changeless qualities of God, and then return to do my part in acting out those qualities on earth: "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Perhaps the best way for us to understand how to pray according to the will of God is to examine Christ’s prayers for His disciples and the apostle Paul’s prayers for his fellow believers. What is so surprising in these prayers is the absence of any reference to wealth, health, or personal comforts – the very subjects that occupy so much space on our own personal prayer lists. The fact that Christ and the apostles concentrated primarily on the spiritual welfare of individuals rather than on their health, comfort, or financial needs is evident in Christ’s promises to His disciples in the Upper Room and in prayers such as are recorded in Luke 22:31-32 and John 17:1-26.

The apostle Paul stressed the spiritual welfare of believers almost exclusively in his prayers (Eph. 1:18-23; 3:14-21; Phil. 1:9-11; Col. 1:9-12).

In other words, when a person is ill or has financial problems or is treated unjustly, we have no biblical basis to know what the will of God is. A young woman asks, “How do I know it is God’s will that I have a marriage partner?” A parent hovering over the bed of a sick child asks, “How do I know whether it is the will of God that my child be healed?” In these and many other instances we must humbly confess that we do not know what the will of God is, for He has not seen fit to reveal it.

What we do know is that it is the will of God for Christ to be victorious within us, whether the circumstances change or not. A childlike response to the injustices and tragedies of life is always God’s will.

Does that mean we should not pray for those matters in doubt? Of course not! Christ prayed in Gethsemane, though it did not prevent His going to the cross; Paul prayed that his thorn in the flesh be removed, though prayer did not remove it. We should pray about everything, letting our requests be made known to God, and the peace of God will keep guard over our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6-7).

What about those who claim to have special knowledge of the will of God that is not revealed in the Scriptures? Many people affirm that the Lord has shown them His specific will about particular situations. Thus in the absence of a scriptural promise they appeal to “inner peace,” a subjective voice, or a sense of assurance.

But it is often difficult for us to distinguish our desires from the will of God. We so earnestly want to see our prayer answered – after all, it seems so reasonable – that we identify the desire itself with the will of God. It may be His will – but not necessarily.

Second, we think we can confirm our desire by the degree of peace God give us about the situation. The more peace we have, the more confident we are that God is going to answer according to our desires.

That may be the reason why so many of the people I described last week who felt peace that their pastor was going to be healed were disappointed. They misread the will of God but not because they lacked holiness, sincerity, or even faith. The reason is that they mistook the peace of God for the plan of God. God granted them peace about the situation, and they took that as a sign that God would answer their request.

At times it may be possible to ascertain the will of God. The closer we walk with God, the more we may be able to discern His will in those unrevealed matters. His desires can more often become ours. He may give us burdens that are in accord with the plan he intends to accomplish.

Emily Gardener Neal, in her book A Reporter Finds God, describes a case she examined of a boy involved in an automobile accident. He was thrown out of the car, which landed on top of him. His back was crushed, and he was bleeding profusely and extensively. Taken to a near-by hospital, he lay unconscious for many weeks, paralyzed from the neck down. According to the doctors, his case was completely hopeless. The only person not hopeless was his priest, who went each day to the hospital to pray for him.

At last the boy regained consciousness, and the clergyman confidently expressed his conviction that God would heal him. The doctors were extremely critical, objecting that it was barbaric cruelty to assure an obviously hopeless case of recovery.

One day, about two weeks after the patient had emerged from a coma; he received the laying-on-of-hands and felt a sensation like, as he described it, “liquid fire running through my body.” Three weeks later he got out of bed and walked. He re-entered college the next fall and graduated later with highest honors.

In the case of this young man, it was God’s will for him to be healed, and his priest sensed that was the case probably as a result of his close relationship with Jesus. But in the absence of specific biblical promises, we simply cannot confirm the specific will of God in each situation.

Having come this far, we must now ask, “Why is God’s will so obscure? Shouldn’t the will of God be straightforward and reasonable? What could be plainer than the fact that God heal the young pastor I mentioned last week? If it isn’t His will, it should be!

The Bible is filled with examples of God’s sovereign dealings that prove without question that His ways are not our ways and that His hidden purposes are not revealed to us. We love to tell the story of how God delivered Daniel from the lions. It’s a wonderful story, and even better, it’s true. But what shall we make of the fact that thousands of Christians were thrown to the lions in Rome and no angel appeared to deliver them?

We remember the three Hebrews thrown into the fire. Behold, one like the Son of Man is walking with them! Indeed, when the three emerge, there is not even the smell of smoke on them. But where was the Son of Man when John Hus and other martyrs died in the flames?

There are two types of heroes in the Bible, some who were delivered from death and some who were not. This contrast is clearly seen in Acts 12. Herod kills the apostle James the brother of John with the sword. He intends to do the same to Peter, but the church prays for his deliverance, and he is miraculously released. One may try to explain Peter’s release, saying that the church prayed for him and not for James. However they did not pray in faith for Peter; when the servant girl said that he was at the door, they assumed she was temporarily insane.

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous person does accomplish much. It is the means God uses to fulfill His specific will. God wanted Daniel, the three Hebrews, and Peter delivered, and prayers offered in harmony with His purposes were answered.

What if God’s people had not prayed in these cases? We cannot know whether these men would have been delivered or not. God often carries out His will with or without our intercession. We are sure, however, that these prayers would have been of benefit to those who prayed them, even if they had not been answered. The purpose of prayer is not so much to change God’s mind about a particular circumstance as it is to change our hearts so that we accept whatever circumstances He gives us. As someone has said, it is much more important that we lay hold of God than that we lay hold of the answer we seek.

The idea that a prayer is useless unless it is answered is false. Many men and women of God have besought God for matters that did not come to pass, but they received much spiritual benefit, and God was honored. Prayer – even unanswered prayer – enables us to develop intimacy with the Almighty. Getting an affirmative answer is not the only purpose of prayer.

In the final analysis, we must submit our prayers to the inscrutable will of God, who has the right to do as He wishes with those who are His own. He has every right to treat each person differently.

Yet some questions still remain. Why all this unpredictability? Why this apparent divine disinterest in our plight? Why did the family of James have to suffer and the family of Peter experience deliverance? Why are children of God not automatically protected from rape, accidents, and painful illnesses? If He wanted to, God could easily be more consistent and helpful.

Much is hidden in the counsels of God, but what God desires from us, despite His apparently haphazard dealings with us, is faith.

Think this through: if faith is God’s ultimate priority for us, what better way could He test it than by refusing to answer a prayer to which we think He should say yes?

God has assured us in His Word that He is for us and that nothing shall separate us from His love. Yet His actions are ambiguous, sometimes seeming as if He is not on our side at all. What do we do? At what point can we say, “He does not care”?

The explanation is that it depends on the extent of our friendship with God. The better we know Him, the more likely it is that we will keep trusting Him, even when it appears that God is no longer on our side. We will not judge His love for us by circumstances but by His promises.

This is the “trial of our faith.” God sees how much we are able to endure, while we continue to believe that He knows best. God chooses to do the opposite of what seems sensible to us. What a test of our loyalty!

What God seeks to do within us is much more important to Him than what happens outside of us. Our circumstances are important to Him – the very hairs on our heads are numbered. But even more important, He seeks a devoted heart.

You may not know whether something for which you are praying is God’s will, but I would urge you to examine God’s Word to make sure your request is not against what he has clearly said. Then I would urge you to pray in faith as if your request is God’s will. After praying in faith, leave the results up to God’s will.