Pray For What God Wants – July 26, 2022

This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:3,4

Pray For What God Wants

You may have heard Christians offering a prayer for something very specific, like the healing of a relative in medical distress or the success of a plan, and then adding at the end of the prayer, “. . . according to your will, O God.” That brings up an interesting question. How do you know what God’s will is?

The truth is that many times you can’t. He doesn’t tell us what our future holds or what will be best for our long-term spiritual well-being. The only thing we can know for sure about God’s will is what he tells us in his Word–the Bible. And that is where he tells us what he really wants is for all people–to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth about Jesus our Savior.

God invites us to pray that way too. Even as we are asking for him to do one thing or another, we are remembering that the ultimate good is for people to come to faith in Jesus. If more people will be saved through someone remaining in medical distress or relieved of medical distress, only God knows, and his will is that all people be saved. If more people come to know about Jesus because of the success or failure of a plan, only God knows, and his will is that all people come to a knowledge of the truth.

That’s why you can pray “according to your will, O God.” God knows what he is doing, he knows what he wants, he loves you and wants you and all people to be saved. He will answer your prayers according to his will; and that’s all you need.

Prayer:
Lead me to trust your will, O God, and answer my prayers according to it, in the name of Jesus. Amen.