Last week, Pastor Luwin shared an article about knowing the difference between God’s secret and revealed will. In this week’s article, I would like to share how being a parent has made me more aware of praying in accordance with God’s revealed will.
Becoming a parent has taught me a lot about my relationship with God. One example has been that as a parent, I have learnt that my responses to my children’s requests can possibly mirror God’s responses to my requests in similar contexts.
Some contextual requests and responses between Oliver and I sound like, “Papa, can I have iced Milo?” (just before dinner). My response is, 99% of the time, “No, not now. But you can after you have finished dinner.” The natural reply I get is, “Why?” “Because iced Milo will fill you up and you won’t finish your dinner.” It is possible to have this conversation five days a week. I’m not sure if all parents would use the same reasoning, but the point is that my children can have whatever they want, but only after they have finished their dinner.
Another conversation we might have sounds like, “Papa, can I watch TV after I have finished my homework?” 90% of the time, I say yes, because he has completed what has been asked of him. 10% of the time I say no, because he already used up his screentime quota for the day. But, he gets to do something else that he likes.
My “yes” and “no” is dependent on Oliver’s obedience to my will. If a request is made without obedience to my will, he gets a negative response. Likewise, if he makes requests according to my will, then he mostly gets a positive response. These kinds of conversations made me think about the requests I make to God and His possible responses to me.
In 1 John 5:13-15, John writes that if we believe in the name of the Son of God, we can have confidence in Him if we ask anything according to His will. We see that when we are assured of our salvation and gain confidence before God, this confidence helps us obey His will and we are therefore able to receive what we ask of Him.
Two things here are required of us to get a positive response from God for the things that we ask for. First, we need to believe in His Son for Him to be our Heavenly Father so that we can have the confidence to make our requests known to Him. Second, we need to know His will in order for us to ask in accordance with it.
As believers, we are most certainly assured that we can come to God the Father with our requests. I guess the problem for most of us (definitely for me) is knowing God’s revealed will for our lives so that we can present requests in accordance with it. It’s very much like how Oliver knows that as my son, he can make his requests known to me. The problem is whether the request is in accordance with my will.
To know God’s will means we need to spend time getting to know Him and what He expects of us. Reading the bible, listening to sermons and spending time in Christian company are ways in which we can learn more about God and His will. When we truly understand God’s will for us, there is still obedience on our part to want to do it. For God to respond to our requests positively, we have to pray in obedience to His will.
If we understand God’s will for us but pray for something else, we cannot expect God to grant our desires. Just like how Oliver asks for Milo before meals, which is not in obedience to my will, we are merely trying our luck. May we be diligent in studying God’s will and obeying it, that we may always be found praying in accordance with His will and having Him answer us in the affirmative.
Dn Jeremiah Chan
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