The Guardrail

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 
1 John 5:14 (NIV)

During World War II, an Army chaplain wrote an article on prayer called “Some Pray and Die.” He watched men who prayed regularly get killed, and he asks the question every honest believer has asked:

What I want to know is this. What sort of extra-special, super-powered prayer is needed to make everything turn out the way you want it?… I really want to know. I’m an army chaplain, and I could use some special prayers with my men—and heaven knows, we need them badly at times.

Then he found his answer. “The thing for all of us to remember is this. Someone else does the answering…. What you have in mind may not be what God has in mind.” He concludes, 

Who gets the breaks in prayers? Nobody. There is no such thing. We get what God in his infinite love and foreknowledge, sees fit to give. That’s not always the same as getting what we want. But it ought to be.

The Apostle John puts that same truth into a short phrase in today’s verse: “...if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” Notice what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say that if you ask anything, God hears you. He says if you ask anything “according to his will.” Prayer is not about asking God to do your will; it’s about asking God to do His will.

If God had said “Yes” to every prayer I ever prayed and given me everything I ever wanted, I’d be in a big mess today. God knows best for you. God only wants to give you what you would want if you were wise enough to want it.

That’s why God’s will is like a guardrail that keeps you from going over a cliff. You can’t be sure that every prayer you pray is God’s will, but you will always be safe in any prayer prayed in God’s will.

This week, take the one request you’ve been pounding on Heaven’s door about. It might be that job offer, the test results, or your child coming home. Every time you pray it, add one sentence to the end: “Lord, more than I want this, I want what You want.” The priority of prayer isn’t to tell God what you want Him to do for you, but to ask what He wants to do through you.

You’re not ready to pray until you want what God wants for an answer. And if you’re not ready to pray that, pray that God would help you want to pray that. The guardrail isn’t there to fence you in. It’s there to get you home.

Prayer: Lord, I confess I’ve sometimes treated prayer like a way to get You to approve my plans. Forgive me. Thank You for every “No” that kept me from a cliff I couldn’t see. I want what You want more than I want what I want. Keep me inside Your guardrail today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.