by J.R. Miller

“According to His Will”

“Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed: My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.” Matthew 26:39

One essential element of all true prayer, is its final reference of all requests to the will of God. Yet this quality of prayer is often forgotten or overlooked in our pleading. We often pray earnestly–but it is for the doing of our own will that we ask, not for the doing of our Father’s will. Yet nothing is clearer than that no prayer is acceptable to God which, after all its intensity and importunity–is not referred to God and left to His superior wisdom.

How can we know what is best for us? How can we tell whether or not the thing we desire would prove a real blessing if we had it? How do we know that it will be best for us to have the bitter cup which is held out toward our quivering lips, pass away?

Then there is another way of looking at it. Is it the true child spirit for us to insist on having our own way with God, to press our will without regard to His? Are we not God’s creatures, His redeemed children? Is it not ours, then, in all things to learn obedience and submission to Him?

The beloved disciple has given us this word: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” This, then, is the test of all praying–it must be according to God’s will.

by J.R. Miller