How do you know you are praying the will of God?
Discussion question for January 14, 2011.
A man with prostate cancer refuses to pray for healing and chooses to accept his condition as part of the will of God. Is this Christian fatalism? When should a Christian contend in faith for a specific answer to prayer? How would you know that it is time to accept an outcome? Is there a difference between faith, believing, and trust?
Here’s my summary of our discussion.
Christian fatalism happens when a person becomes a victim of their understanding of God’s will. In other words, they choose not to exercise their free will and then blame God for the results. But God does not override a person’s free will.
God is just. Our understanding of “fair” has to do with equality and sameness, but God is personal. There is no “one-size-fits-all” will of God that acts to control people. Instead, His relationship with us is always customized and personalized. The principle of His will is to bring us to perfection which means being in complete relationship with Him.
When we pray it should cause us to merge our will with God’s. His best intentions for me can be limited by my ability to accept or believe. He may want to give me an immediate, radical, physical healing from cancer but won’t force it on me if I am unable or unwilling to receive it. On the other hand, His ultimate objective is that we be together eternally without separations and limitations caused by the wages of sin.
If the source and force of my will is based on my physical needs or independent nature then I am attempting to control God. That would make me like a spoiled child, demanding my rights without love or respect for Our relationship. On the other hand, if I am unwilling to exercise my (free) will, then I am choosing to be a victim. That is not God’s desire for me.
We have a model of this merged will concept in the Biblical concept of one-flesh marriage. A husband and wife create a unique combined will between the two of them. They do not introduce competing wills that fight for control or preeminence over their partner’s. Ephesians 5:32 states that it is this way with Christ and the church. Christ represents the Triune God and the we represent the church. When we are in a marriage relationship with God we learn to merge Our wills, desires, dreams and hopes.
God brings the power that causes them to be, and He also brings the knowledge of what does and does not promote the ultimate goal: to be made perfect in Our union together for all eternity.