Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– E.M. Bounds
Finding God’s Will
If we are to live lives that are pleasing to God, we must find God’s will. Some parts of God’s will are clear, like where the Apostle Paul writes “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality” (1st Thess 4:3), “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Eph 5:17). God will never reveal His secret or hidden will for your life until you first obey His revealed will found in His Word and that can be found in Scripture.
Making His Will our Will
When we pray as Jesus taught His disciples, “your will be done” (Matt 6:10), we are trying to find God’s will and make our will what His will is, but we’ll never know His will entirely if we are not praying to find it, therefore it is vital for us to seek God’s revealed will in His Word and then make that our will. For example, we already know its God’s will that we abstain from sexual immorality (1st Thess 4:3). It’s not really complicated.
Effectual, Fervent Prayer
One way we can find God’s will is in Scripture and part of His will is what James wrote about in 5:16 where he wrote, “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” because “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven” (James 5:15).
Conclusion
Since we know that prayer is vital to our spiritual life, we cannot go a day without it. Prayer is connecting to God and seeking to find His will and to do that which is pleasing in His sight. If we never communicated with our parents, how would they feel? In the same way, God wants us to speak with Him and to pour out our hearts before Him and if we don’t, we have lost the greatest source of strength and help there is. Nothing much can come without prayer.
