NOT MY WILL, BUT YOURS
John 15:7
"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you"
The clouds were hanging low and darkness was setting in very quickly. I stood in the window looking out over the ocean trying to see the lights of the small Dehavilland Beaver float plane that was still out there somewhere. I was praying hard that the Lord would get them in in time before it was too dark to land.
Float planes need to be able to see the surface of the water and have enough light to see a contrast between sky and water. Without good light there is telling when you will hit the water or if you will, before hitting shore.
Jay, our lodge's pilot, had left late to pick up fisherman on a river, about 20 minutes flying time... now it was all but dark and I prayed hard that the Lord would bring Jay and the 4 fisherman back safely. At the very last seconds of light I heard the unmistakable whine of the engine of the beaver. As I watched the planes lights come down onto the ocean surface I thanked the Lord for answering my prayers.
Many wonder if God really answers prayer or if it is just a coincidence and good timing that looks like answered prayers. But God tells to earnestly pray, in His will and He will answer. There are times when there is no doubt, because a prayer was so specific that it could only be Good blessing those praying with their request.
One instance of this was just shared by President Trump's during celebration if Billy Graham's life. He told this story. "In the spring of 1934, Billy Graham's father allowed a group of Charlotte businessmen to use a portion of the family's dairy farm to gather for a day of prayer," Trump began. "They prayed that out of Charlotte, the Lord would raise up someone to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. There could be little doubt that their prayer was answered when Billy Graham came out of that area and started to preach the gospel a couple years later.
In John 15:7, above, we tend to gravitate immediately toward the latter part of that verse: "Ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you". We love that, as though God were some sort of genie. But that isn't the case. We often forget about the first part of this verse: "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you" . . . If we are walking in fellowship with God and studying the Word of God, then we will start praying according to the will of God. And then we will start seeing our prayers answered.
Just prior to Jesus arrest He prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." Matthew 26:39. Jesus prays the same thing three times and makes His request to His heavenly Father each time. But He also says, "Yet not as I will, but as You will"....
We should give our desires to the Lord in prayer, but, we also should go to Him acknowledging that we submit to His good and perfect will. When we pray this way, we can rest assured that whatever happens we know that we will be blessed and God will be glorified through our prayer.
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