Pray for God's Will

The difference between God’s sovereign and moral will.

God’s moral will can be discarded by us. It doesn’t have to happen. God wishes that we would follow his moral will, but he gives us free will to reject it if we so choose. I want you to think of God’s moral will like the Ten Commandments.

• thou shalt not murder
• thou shalt not steal
• honor your father and mother
• put no other gods before Him

We see people breaking these all the time. God has given them the freedom to break his moral will, but no one can break God’s sovereign will.

God’s sovereignty is His supreme power, authority, and control over all creation—nothing occurs outside His will, knowledge, or influence.

God’s sovereign will is always going to happen. This doesn’t mean that God intentionally causes all the evil we see in the world. It’s not God’s will for people to be murdered, for children to starve, for women to be abused, etc. God doesn’t cause evil, he simply allows it for a time . He will make it all right eventually. This is one of the great hang-ups for a lot of nonbelievers.

Without evil, there would be no free will. No ability to choose between right and wrong. We’d all be robots. There’d be no need for Jesus’s sacrifice.

Because God knows everything, he can make sure even the evil things of this world eventually work together for his good.

Jesus understood this. This is why Matt 6:10 (public) and Luke 22:42 (private moment) both align. He practiced what he preached. It was both an external and internal thing for him.

In Luke 22, Jesus was at the Mount of Olives praying alone.

In Matthew 6, Jesus was teaching his disciples the Lord’s Prayer.

Why do we pray for God’s will to be done, when it is going to happen regardless?

Fosters a heart attitude dependent on Him

First and foremost, praying for God’s Will helps us foster a heart attitude that is dependent on Him.

Prov 3:5-6

• If my understanding doesn’t align with God’s, I’m to put mine to the side.
• If I don’t understand, but I can find principles in God’s words to apply (acknowledging His ways) then He will direct my path. I show dependence on Him and He will lead.
• He SHALL direct. This is a deal you can take to the bank. Shall is not might or maybe . It’s 100 percent. God will ALWAYS place you where you need to be. He will move you to the correct place when you depend on him.

When I was getting ready to graduate college, I thought I knew for sure where I wanted to be. ACS Technologies. A small software company that made church software. It was 15 Minutes from my parent’s house. It was a company building CHRISTIAN software. ACS had a direct talent pipeline to my school. There weren’t that many software companies in Florence and I was a computer science student. I didn’t have that many options right there anywhere else, and I didn’t want to move to a different place. I was convinced that this had to work. This HAD to be God’s Will because I didn’t see anything else available.

After 3 rounds of interviews, they turned me down.

I was devastated. Looking back now, I see that God had something so much better planned. If I had taken that job, I would’ve never moved to Charleston. I wouldn’t have met my wife. I wouldn’t have gotten involved in the church I’ve been able to minister in down here. I wouldn’t have had all the opportunities I’ve been given at my work. Opportunities to talk to new people and travel new places.

Turns out, that company laid off a bunch of people a year or two after I left Florence. Lots of downsizing. About a year ago, one of the guys who got the ACS internship spot instead of me reached out asking if I knew of any open positions for work.

God knew what he was doing. He knew what he needed me to do. His Will for me was so much greater than what I had imagined for myself.

Mat 26:39

Jesus, in his flesh, exhibited complete and total dependence on God. Notice how the attitude he demonstrated wasn’t at all tied to what he was internally feeling. How would you feel if you knew you were going to die an excruciating death? At the hands of men who hated you with every fiber of their being?

In the flesh, Jesus no doubt felt fearful. He felt anxious. He might have been a bit depressed. If I felt this way, my attitude outwardly might be one of despair, anger, anguish, sadness.

Jesus’s outside attitude was total dependence on God. He said, “God you know I don’t want this but if it’s your Will I’m going to do it”. It was an attitude of dependence, not those other things.

Is it okay to still feel those things? Of course. You are not somehow less of a Christian if you feel scared, or hurt, or angry. But the attitude we outwardly show should be that of dependence on God. You can acknowledge those other feelings, but you should not allow them to control you. Praying for God’s Will grounds us in that dependence and helps keep those negative emotions from controlling us.

Why?

Because, by communicating with my Heavenly Father, I’m actively, with every word of prayer, acknowledging Him and his power. How can I live in a place of fear and bitterness and anger when I’ve got a direct line to the God who can give me the strength to overcome all of it in an instant? Maybe it’s his Will that I feel it. Maybe, in his sovereign Will, He’s preparing me for someone or something later on, and I need to feel it to understand. There’s no way to know. That’s where trust comes in. That’s where a constant state of dependence and communication through prayer comes in.

Ps 143:10

David is saying that only God can teach his Will. It’s not something we can teach ourselves. It’s not something that a self-help book can teach you. Frankly, even a pastor can’t teach you to do God’s Will for your life. You can listen to Adrian Rogers, Charles Spurgeon, and David Jeremiah every day for the rest of your life, and that won’t teach you God’s Will for your life. It may give you a good starting point, but no man can tell you God’s Will for you.

God’s Will for you is different than God’s Will for me. There will be similar veins of truth in both of the paths he would have us to take, but the implementation will be different. It’s God’s will that both you and I rely on Him and depend on Him, but the way that manifests itself in your life and mine may be different. It’s God’s Will that both you and I witness to others, but the people I’m called to witness to aren’t necessarily the people you are called to. The capacity in which I’m called to serve is different than yours.

Our heart must be totally and completely dependent on God to teach us his Will for our lives. The steps that he would direct us to walk. Take a moment to stop and think… What is the last thing God taught you? What is the last step of faith that you took.

My wife and I went to get McDonalds after a night in at Edisto Beach the other day. We had tried to go on a date to Botany Bay that night (reminiscing about where we got engaged). It had been a couple months since we had been. We drove through Charleston traffic for about two hours to get to Edisto. Only to find that Botany Bay was closed that day for a hunt. And the restaurant we had wanted to go to, Edingsville Grocery, was no more. It had been bought by someone and changed into Bluefin Mexican Sushi.

Needless to say, neither of us was very happy. We tried to salvage the date by going by Food Lion in Edisto (because there was no where else to eat), getting some Food Lion Italian subs, and going to the actual Edisto beach. The subs were dry and nasty, full of preservatives, and the beach had a bunch of people on it. So defeated and tired, we started the long trip home. When we were almost home, we were both thirsty, so we stopped at a McDonalds to get a fry and a large sweet tea. The person in front of us (who, much to my chagrin, had pulled in front of me last minute) ordered like 20 chicken nuggets and a few big mac combos or something, so we were sitting there, waiting. Neither of us was in the best mood. So when we finally got our food, I didn’t even check the bag, I just pulled off, ready to get home. We then realized we didn’t have a straw for the drink. I didn’t care, but Sarah wanted a straw. Happy wife, happy life, so I pulled back around to walk inside and get a straw. When we got back on the road we were both a bit miffed at each other. I was miffed about having to turn around and get the straw. Sarah was miffed that I hadn’t considered even checking to make sure the straw was in the bag before pulling off.

We were so disgruntled neither of us was talking, drinking the drink, or eating the fries. Finally, I asked Sarah to grab me a fry. As she stuck her hand in the bag, she busted out laughing, which was really weird as we were both mad at each other. Then she asked me to put my hand in the bag and feel. There was the straw. We got mad at each other over something so tiny that really wasn’t even a problem in the first place. How many times do we do that with each other and with God? That was God showing me something right there. In the smallest of things.

It transforms our mind.

Every time we pray for God’s will, it further aids us in the process of having our minds transformed to be more like Christ.

Rom 12:2

How do we prove the will of God? By transforming rather than being conformed.

• The will of God should be stronger than your own will in the life of a Christian.
• Unbelievers conform to this world, but Christians are transformed to be a market when we follow God’s moral will and play our part in his sovereign will knowingly.
  • His sovereign will will happen regardless, but by acknowledging him in all of our ways and spending time in communication with him, we will not be surprised when it does.
• What does the to prove mean in that verse? It means to approve in the original text. So we approve of God’s will when we choose to be transformed rather than conforming to the sinful world around us. It shows we choose to approve of what God’s will for us would be over what our will would be for us in the flesh.

Ps 40:8

God’s Will will always ultimately give us pleasure, but it’s not always fun.

“I delight to do thy will” can literally be translated “I take pleasure in doing what is pleasing to God”. Is it always fun to do what is pleasing to God? No, but pleasure is different than fun. I take great pleasure from studying God’s word, but putting aside other things to focus on reading and writing isn’t always fun. Part of the transformation process is learning to derive pleasure from doing what pleases God, even when it isn’t fun.

And we derive that pleasure from putting God’s law within our hearts. How do we put it within our hearts? From meditating on it. From studying it. From getting alone with God before the hustle and bustle of the day starts.

1 Pe 4:1-3

Arm yourselves with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus as he suffered for us. The mind that said, “let this cup pass from me, but if it doesn’t, your will be done.”

Arm implies that there is a spiritual battle. We shouldn’t live to our lust, but to the will of God . What are you living towards today? New house? New job? New vacation? There’s a war being waged as what we’ll live to and for, a battle for the attention of our minds.

One primary way we see the battle for the attention of our minds has been the rise of short-form video and the decrease in literacy among people today. Being as God’s word is best consumed as a book, this poses a problem.

I was reading an article about the dawn of a post literate society last week.

• In America, reading for pleasure has fallen by forty per cent in the last twenty years.
• In the UK, more than a third of adults say they have given up reading.
• The average person now spends seven hours a day staring at a screen. For Gen Z the figure is nine hours. A recent article in  The Times  found that on average modern students are destined to spend 25 years of their waking lives scrolling on screens

It would seem this decline in general reading ability has probably also affected how much people spend time reading God’s Word.

In 2011, the percentage of Americans who “used the Bible at least 3-4 times on their own, outside of a church setting” was around 50%. Again in 2012—around 50%. Then again in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. Always around 50%. But according to the American Bible Society, in 2022, that number dropped to 39%. And daily Bible reading dropped from 14% to 10%.[1]

If we are to arm ourselves with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, we have to read his Word. There is no substitute.

It gives God the Father Joy

Praying for God’s will brings God the Father joy.

Rev 4:11

Here again we see reference to God’s pleasure.

In this part of the Bible, the 24 elders are falling down around the Lord who is this upon the throne, and they’re worshiping him, and they’re casting their crowns before him. They’re giving him praise

For God’s pleasure we were created. So that tells us that God’s Will is to use us (His created beings) to bring him good pleasure. God gets pleasure and joy from watching his creation, who he has given free will, turn from the distractions of the world to focus on him.

• You being in church gives your Heavenly father pleasure!
• You singing out praise gives him pleasure!
• Spending time in prayer with him gives him pleasure.

God. The creator of this entire universe. He feels joy when he sees me honoring and worshiping Him. Why would I not want to do that more? It’s what I was created for. It’s what you were created for.

I imagine if a bona-fide professional drummer had to spend his entire musical career strumming a guitar, he wouldn’t be happy. It’s not where his purpose lies. He wants to be banging on drums with sticks, not strumming on strings with picks!

Similarly, if my purpose is to honor God, but I spend my whole life chasing all these other things, then of course that’s not going to fulfill me. And of course I’m not going to be happy. And of course I’m going to be on Lexapro. And of course I’m going to be depressed. It just makes sense, doesn’t it?

Philippians 2:13

We don’t have to do the work all by ourselves to give God pleasure. It doesn’t have to be a chore. Sometimes to bring Sarah pleasure I have to do something that I don’t necessarily want to do, like folding clothes or washing dishes. It’s a chore. I do it because I love her, but I never think, “man I really just want to scrape some soggy cheese off the bottom of a casserole dish!”. But I know when I do, and then she comes into the kitchen later to do it, she’ll look in the sink then she’ll look at me and give me the sweetest smile in the whole world and say thank you.

He works in us to bring us to a point of doing his good pleasure. He wills it into the life of a child of his. If you’re praying for God’s Will in your life, He will bring it to pass and you will automatically be doing things that bring him joy.

There is effort involved, but God gives you the strength and the purpose and the will to do it. And he uses a specific person to do this.

Heb 13:20-21

To do His will and be well-pleasing in His sight, He works through Jesus Christ in us.

The power to do God’s will (and thus give God the Father joy) comes through obeying the principles laid out by Jesus Christ each and every day.

So if you don’t know Jesus Christ, and you don’t have that relationship with Him, then you are unable to bring God the Father joy.

The first thing that we can ever do to bring God the Father joy is to accept the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross and admit he is Lord and Savior and accept salvation. This is the message that people need to hear

So when we pray for God’s Will, we’re doing a ton of important things. We’re giving God the Father pleasure, we’re fashioning a heart that is dependent on God, and we’re doing our part to continue the transformation to be more like his son, Jesus Christ. If you’re not praying for God’s Will to be done in your life today, I’d encourage you to start. It’ll do nothing but benefit you and draw you closer to Him.