Prayers & God's Will
Q: Please help me understand something that I struggle with. I have recently been saved, after years of just not knowing what I believed. I no longer have doubts about who my Lord and Savior is, and I know Jesus loves me, but there are things I don’t understand.
I pray to God all the time. I pray to thank Jesus for His sacrifice for us. I pray worshipping God the way that He should be worshipped, and to tell Him that I love Him. I pray to thank Him for answering my prayers. I pray before a meal to thank Him for the food provided that will nourish my body. They are prayers where I simply state truths about my thoughts and feelings, expressing my gratitude, etc. and I don’t ask for anything of Him or give my burdens to Him in these prayers.
Then there are the times I pray for a request. I pray for something I really need to happen, either for myself, for someone I care about, or even for a total stranger. I call those my “request prayers”. After the request I always add, “if it is your will”, because we all know that He is not going to make something happen if it is not His will.
So my question is, why do we pray for the things we want or need if it’s ultimately up to God whether He helps those things come to fruition or not?
For example, say my brother has a disease that he could either die from or heal. My prayer might start out with, “please help my brother heal, if it is your will”. Would my brother automatically not have God’s healing hands to help him get better if no one prayed for this to happen? Does my brother stand a better chance if 100 people pray for him vs one?
I am in no way trying to rebel or look for any flaws or contradictions. I legit want to know what the purpose is of praying for something that may not be God’s will or in His plans that were decided before we were even born. If he decided before my brother was even born that my brother would die of a disease before he turned 25, that’s going to happen no matter how much we pray, correct? What we are praying for will not happen unless it is something God wants to happen.
God knows how everything is going to play out in everyone’s life. Every single aspect of our lives is His knowledge before it happens. So how can prayer change the original pre-planned course of something? Please help me understand. 😔
ps my actual current issue is that I’m trying to help others with their faith and I have asked for God’s assistance to do that, so I will have to be able to answer questions just like this if I’m going to be successful.
A: We all grow in the knowledge and faith over time. It is good to always be learning. Our learning comes by way of understanding the Scriptures deeper & living it out.
Your desire to know more on prayer and God, and to help others is good. You will want to have a handy list of verses to share on that topic [so memorizing verses, and keeping a topical verse notepad list on app handy is good], as well as resources like the below link and some biblically reliable books for further reading.
On the question of your brother we can look to Scripture and see that God uses or allows suffering or trials in various ways and times in peoples life to bring about His plan. Look at the Apostles being arrested & jailed as an example. The jailers, guards, minor and major rulers of regions and the King & his people listening would not have heard the gospel. Many among them God saved. God put them in those situations to bring about certian salvations at the right time and those redeemed there went on to share the gospel to others at the right time in their lives from then onward and to do good works etc. It God's will & all things that will happen is all weaved together across all time. The full time of man on earth from start to final end.
Look at the blind man who we were told was blind to bring glory to God. Not as a harm to the man. We might not understand some of these things well but we will def never understand the full picture of why and what's going on, but God does, and for the born again/redeemed ones it always has a purpose and reason to eventually be about bringing about for our good. Growing our faith, strengthening our character, making us more reliant in God, molding and shaping us to be more and more like Christ. God is like the potter and we like the clay. At the end of our life there will be a fully furnaced finished pottery. Like having gone through it all with persevering endurance... you have run & completed the race. The pottery will be put on display for all to see.
If I get a injury that leads me to outpatient or urgent care, or hospitalized due to a car accident or back ulinjury, or get cancer I am able to go into the community of people with cancer (and those related to them) and to the specific type as well, but also all the hospital staff and the doctors. I can share Christ and do good there [as a faithful servant observing and looking for those opportunities] which glorifies God. Even in the midst of that suffering and difficult trying times.
About His Will [in general] we have a glimpse into it from Scripture. God wants us to "live in righteousness" so... it is good to prayerfully ask for things that would be a "good" towards others. It keeps our heart and mind focused on Him too.
We wouldnt want to try to thwart God's plan just to have a self centered outcome. That would be evil. It would be like Jonah but not going to ninevah and rather dying in the big fish than be loving and helpful to the unsaved - desiring as God that none perish but [all who will be saved] all be saved.
Avoiding a car accident would mean the believer didnt see that car repair company the insurance company sent us [the believer] to, to bring the Gospel to "the one(s)" God wanted to hear it at this particular time in her life. Or avoid that extremely painful back injury that lands you in a hospital ward the week of Easter to share the Gospel with a nurse or an unsaved person you share a room with. We are not to complain about our situations but seek what God is doing in them; our growth or correction - and to share the Gospel.
He knows all things and has all our good works planned from the foundation of the world that we should walk in them (God doing them through us). This good towards others includes blessings to humans saved and unsaved, and it is to be covered with grace and forgiveness, and patience too. We do this to show forth the Gospel which glorify God.
Just like His Will it is the same with salvation. He has already the names of those who will be saved written in the Lamb's Book of Life, they were all written in that book before the foundation of the world. Before the world was created. This is why the doctrine of salvation (sometimes called calvinism) is the biblically revealed doctrine of Soteriology. Whosoever will believe are those who will believe. All who believe will be saved. True conversions that happen are all done by God. He calls us to salvation.
We are simply a servant in the hand of our Redeemer, used by God for His purpose, as we travel through this sin stained world on our way to Glory [Heaven] where we will gain sin free bodies, live in an eternal place that is sin free and be with Jesus (and the redeemed) forever.
See 1Thess. 4:3
For this is the Will of God - your sanctification. You ought to walk and please God. You are one seperated from sin.
I pray for your growth in the faith & that God will use you to do many things that bless others and glorify God.
I hope this helped.
On The Will of God:
The Will of God - sanctification
*The above are great examples of things you can share with others. As would be this faq link.
God bless
Footnote
Backup to God's Will mystery link gty
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