Tag: Your Will Be Done

The Explanation For Our Difficulties

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Oswald Chambersby Oswald Chambers

…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us… —John 17:21

If you are going through a time of isolation, seemingly all alone, read John 17 . It will explain exactly why you are where you are— because Jesus has prayed that you “may be one” with the Father as He is. Are you helping God to answer that prayer, or do you have some other goal for your life? Since you became a disciple, you cannot be as independent as you used to be.

God reveals in John 17 that His purpose is not just to answer our prayers, but that through prayer we might come to discern His mind. Yet there is one prayer which God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?

God is not concerned about our plans; He doesn’t ask, “Do you want to go through this loss of a loved one, this difficulty, or this defeat?” No, He allows these things for His own purpose. The things we are going through are either making us sweeter, better, and nobler men and women, or they are making us more critical and fault-finding, and more insistent on our own way. The things that happen either make us evil, or they make us more saintly, depending entirely on our relationship with God and its level of intimacy. If we will pray, regarding our own lives, “Your will be done” (Matthew 26:42), then we will be encouraged and comforted by John 17, knowing that our Father is working according to His own wisdom, accomplishing what is best. When we understand God’s purpose, we will not become small-minded and cynical. Jesus prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself, just as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far from this oneness; yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him— because Jesus prayed, “…that they all may be one….”

by Oswald Chambers

One essential element

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J.R. Millerby 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