LET YOUR WILL BE DONE – Part 1
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: “Laat U wil geskied – Deel 1”
Translator: Robin Barker
Someone wrote the following to me:
I am having difficulty in understanding something, somewhere in the Bible it is written, that if you believe, you will receive, but that it is within the will of God.
Someone else wrote and said they, as an example, prayed for a sick child and then the child passed away.
I cannot have faith, if I am not certain whether it forms part of God’s plan.,
How can I know that what I pray for is in God’s plan?
I want to begin by sharing the following 3 sections from the Word with you and everything I am going to share with you, bearing in mind, that I am using these 3 sections as criteria in my thoughts on this matter and naturally these 3 sections are supported by the rest of our Lord’s Word.
We read:
ROM 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose
Then we read further:
ROM 9:20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”
ROM 9:21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
Then the following section as well:
1 JOHN 5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
1 JOHN 5:15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (in accordance with His will.)
I have prayed for many people throughout my life where our Lord, in accordance with someone’s own criteria, never answered. This never meant that God did not answer. Then again, I have prayed for someone and our Lord answered based on someone’s criteria.
I, myself, within my own human understanding, do not have an explanation on how our Lord handles my prayers the way He handled them but why should I concern myself with questions about this, if the Almighty, All-knowing, Creator, Redeemer and Saviour says to me in His Word:
ROM 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Yes, I know that there are people, some highly qualified psychologists and also theologians that say you may ask questions, but personally as far as I can remember, since my conversion, I have never had the urge to ask “why”’ but then, why would I do such a thing, if He has already told me, that only the best will happen to me. Who am I to look to God and ask:
“Why?”
ROM 9:20 … “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” (or allows this or that to happen in my life.)
In this writing, I start from the premise that I am dealing with people on the one side of the spectrum, who believe that Jesus is God and that He became man, right through to the other side of the spectrum of people, who truly have a deep loving relationship with Jesus Christ.
I am not writing this devotional from the Word to, as an example, an atheist, because generally I cannot talk about our Lord to people who do not believe, in the first place, that our Lord actually exists.
Personally, I will only reason with an atheist, if we reason about whether there is a God.
I do not waste my time generally, on the reason why God does or doesn’t do something, because I am just wasting my time talking about God as he/she doesn’t even believe that there is a God.
What is the point of talking to someone for instance, about the beauty of the “Voortrekker monument” [a], if he/she doesn’t firstly believe, or wants to believe that there is a “Voortrekker monument”? It is a waste of my energy and precious time.
Important to realise –
The first thing that I should always remember when I pray is that I always must pray and mean it and believe it.
What do I mean that truly believe and mean should form part of our prayer?
Jesus taught us how to pray in the Word, and He began it as follows:
MAT 6:9 “This, then, is how you should pray: …
Then He gives us an example of how we should pray, but I am only quoting here what is specifically relevant to this writing from the Word, that you should know it and never exclude it from your prayers and that you work at truly believing it and truly meaning what you are praying for.
Jesus says that we must pray:
MAT 6:10 … your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
I prefer the older versions words (King James Version KJV) only because I was converted with that translation:
MAT 6:10 … Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
If you have prayed this in faith, fully believing it and truly meaning it, you can, as I understand the Word, know for sure that what you have prayed for and whatever takes place next, will be the absolute best thing that ever could happen. Because you are our Lord’s child and He says:
ROM 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Because, how glorious!
You have asked for something which is in accordance with His will, and He says:
1 JOHN 5:14-15
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of. (That which is in accordance with His will.)
Then on occasion He will answer with something in a way that I did not want and I wonder by myself why did He answer my prayer in such a way, but I always have that great peace within my heart –
ROM 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
One thing that I will never do is to question the Almighty All-knowing God.
Because I know very well:
ROM 9:20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?”
In my next writing I will share a situation with you where our Lord, on one occasion did not answer people’s prayers and then a little later answered these people’s prayers in a supernatural way.
At this point I will leave you with the following from the Word of our Lord:
HEB 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for (confidence in His plan for us) and assurance about what we do not see. (At the precise moment He had determined, in accordance with His will.)
Greetings,
Sakkie