Thy Will Be Done or My Will Be Done?

Mark 11:24-25 (NIV) "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

John 14:12-14 (TEB) "I tell you the truth: whoever believes in me will do the works I do--yes, he will do even greater ones, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father's glory will be shown through the Son. If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it."

Why aren't our prayers answered (the way we want)?

Why, when we know a thing is “Good” and Right” do we pray for that thing and it is still withheld?

How do these verses (which are straight from the mouth of Jesus) mesh with:

Mat 26:39 (NIV) [Jesus in Gethsemane] "Yet not as I will, but as you will..."

James 4:15-16 (Jer) The most you should ever say is: "If it is the Lord's will, we shall still be alive to do this or that." But how proud and sure of yourselves you are. Pride of this kind is always wicked.

C.S. Lewis' commentary:

"As regards [the fact that many prayers go unanswered] no evasion is possible. Every war, every famine or plague, almost every death-bed, is the monument to a petition that was not granted... They have sought and not been granted. They have knocked and the door has not been opened."

"But [praying that God's will be done], though much less often mentioned, is surely an equal difficulty. How is it possible at one and the same moment to have perfect faith... that you will get what you ask... and yet also prepare yourself submissively in advance for a possible refusal? If refusal is possible, how can you have simultaneously a perfect confidence that what you ask for will not be refused? If you have that confidence, how can you take refusal into account at all?"

What have you prayed for and received?

What have you prayed for and not received? Can you see a reason why it would not be in God's will?

To tell someone who has just suffered the loss of a loved one, as one extreme example, that their loss was God's will is difficult. Should that be the response when they ask why God didn't answer their prayers?

Why do we not move mountains EVERY day?

C.S. Lewis:

"I'm not asking why our petitions are so often refused. Anyone can see in general that this must be so. In our ignorance we ask what is not good for us or for others, or not even intrinsically possible. Or again, to grant one man's prayer involves refusing another's. The real problem is... not why refusal is so frequent, but why the opposite result is so lavishly promised?"

"1) These Scriptures are the worst possible place at which to begin Christian instruction... You remember what happened when the Widow started Huck Finn off with the idea he could get what he wanted by praying for it. He tried the experiment and then, not unnaturally, never gave Christianity a second thought. We had better not talk of the prayer of faith as "elementary". It is a truth for very advanced pupils indeed. It is a coping stone, not a foundation. For most of us the prayer in Gethsemane is the only model. Removing mountains can wait."

James 4:3 (NIV) When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Many people develop a “faith” that is akin to an emotional state. They convince themselves that what they want is right, good, and that if they only believe hard enough, God must grant their request on the strength of their “faith” alone. IS that biblical? Is that even faith?

Faith, we are told, is the essence of things unseen. What does that mean with regard to prayer?

A revival preacher here years ago told this story (paraphrased and shortened):

“ When I woke this morning I was in a terrible hurry. I rushed through a shower, a quick cup of coffee, and getting dressed. Still more asleep than awake I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I grabbed a tube of what I believed to be toothpaste, and began to brush my teeth.

“However, I quickly realized that what I grabbed was not toothpaste, but was, in fact Ben-Gay.

“I believed in all innocence and with every confidence that I had toothpaste on my brush – but that didn't make it so.”

Faith is not belief, nor is it confidence. Faith is both more, and, in a worldly sense, less than either of these. Faith of God is evidence, the obviousness in our life, of a knowledge that God can, will, and does.

1 Jn 5:14-15 14And this is the confidence that we have in him: if we ask for anything according to his will, he listens to us.
15 And if we know that he listens to our requests, we can be sure that we have what we ask him for.

Now we know that Jesus is holy. We know that he is above what we can aspire to. Yet look at when he prays saying “not my will but thine.”

Luke 11:11-13

11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
  12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
  13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

When Jesus is praying for Lazarus – He speaks and Lazarus comes forth. When he heals, he does so with complete confidence and faith. Yet when he is praying for himself he says not my will, but thine. Why?

Certainly it is recorded that we be instructed by it. What is the lesson?

When we pray for things which are close to our own hearts, no matter how much we strive, no matter how close we are to God, we cannot entirely take the human selfishness out of the way. Therefore, we should be careful that what we ask is God's will, and to His glory. We can know His will, in part because it is revealed to us, and in greater detail by prayer and study and experiencing it first hand.

John 15:14-17 (Jer) "You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I shall not call you servants any more, because a servant does not know his master's business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learned from my Father. You did not choose me; no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last; and then the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name."

John 15:7-8 (NIV) "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."

So what is it that distinguishes the prayer of faith?

The old Chinese proverb goes:

When I was 20 I disciplined my body.

When I was 30 I disciplined my speech.

When I was 40 I disciplined my mind.

When I was 50 I disciplined my heart.

Now I am 60 and can do whatever I want.

In terms of Christianity, and prayer, how can we relate to this?

When we are close to God our hearts will be right, our faith will be right, and our prayers will be right.

First discipline (disciple) yourself to God's will.