Humbly Praying In The Will Of God
My approach to my mother when I made a request for her to give me something, always made a difference. When I approached her with love and humility, my request always stood a better chance of success. Especially if I could link the request to something she had promised me. In Genesis 18:25–27; Luke 18:9–14; 1 John 5:14–15, we learn that we should approach God humbly with requests that are aligned with His will. Then we can be confident that He will hear us and answer with what we have asked of Him. I pray that you will examine your prayer requests of God and that you will pray in humility that He would answer according to His will. Amen
Far be it from you to do such a thing —to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake. ”
Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, (Genesis 18:25–27)
Abraham asked God to show mercy on the city that his nephew lived in (Sodom). God informed Abraham that He intended to destroy Sodom. But Abraham appealed to God’s mercy and assessment of who is righteous to save the city if there were righteous people found in it. Abraham’s request of God was made from an attitude of humility and seeking to align with God’s will and righteous judgment.
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9–14)
Jesus told a parable about two men who came to the temple to pray with vastly different attitudes. One came sure of himself and his righteousness, while the other came to pray aware of his unrighteousness and need for mercy and forgiveness. Jesus pointed to the man who humbled himself as the only one of the two who would be justified before God (i.e. declared to be righteous). This parable was told by Jesus as a warning to those “who were confident of their own righteousness”. We can not trust in ourselves for righteousness. So the Pharisee’s comparison of himself to the despised tax collector, made the Pharisee feel superior, but it was a false measurement of his righteousness. Our standard of right living is not other people, it is God.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:14–15)
We should approach God in humility and reverence. And we should seek to ask God for those things that are in His will. John said that if we ask in God’s will, He hears us and that we can be confident that we have what we asked Him for.
Conclusion
God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble is a principle repeated multiple times in the Bible. Therefore, we gain nothing by coming to God pridefully. But when we come humbly before God in prayer and ask according to His will (as revealed in His nature and His promises), we can have confidence that God hears us and we have what we asked. The Bible repeatedly affirms that this is true. So, are you approaching God in prayer like the self righteous Pharisee who focused only on himself? Or are you praying humbly with requests that align with the will of God? The right approach and request in our prayers to our Father makes all the difference in the answer we receive from Him.
Blessings, Rev. Glenn
