Prayer and God's Will

I did some more thinking about this difficult subject of prayer. One of the hardest things for me to get is why God does not answer our prayers. Or maybe I should put it this way--Why does it seem that God doesn't answer our prayers? This is a heart-wrenching issue that we've all experienced. I have several long-term prayer requests that God has yet to do anything about or so it seems.

Although I'm not completely sure that I know the answer to this question, I think that it lies in the direction of the subject of God's will. Sometimes God does not answer a request because it is contrary to His will. Throughout Scripture, we continue to hear that God wants us to pray according to His will. Look at Romans 1:9-10.

For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

In this passage, Paul mentions to the Romans that it was his life-long prayer request to visit them. Notice that he prayed that it would be God's will or desire for him to do this. By this statement, Paul acknowledges that God has the ability to say "Yes" or "No" to his request. What does the answer to his request rest on? God's will.

Of course, God's will is a extremely difficult subject in itself, but let me make an observation about our usage of this phrase. When folks talk about God's will, they normally use the term in one of two different ways: His will of preference and His will of action. We talk like this everyday.

For instance, the other night I was hanging out with my friend Kupo. Now Kupo asked me a favor. Ideally I didn't want to do it. Doing this wasn't exactly something that I considered fun. This is what I mean by the term will of preference. I preferred not to act in this way.

However, I did do the favor for Kupo. Why? Because my will of action led me in this direction. I had a deeper motivation that required me to do the favor for Kupo. My friendship with Kupo caused me to act in that manner as opposed to my preferred course of action.

This is true with God as well. Ideally God desires a world without sin. He desires that everyone will be saved. He desires that folks tell the truth. He desires a world without sickness and pain. This is God's will of preference. (Luis Molina called this God's absolute intentions).

However, our world doesn't necessarily correspond to God's ideal or preferred will. That means that on a deeper level God must desire something else. This is what I mean by His will of action. (Luis Molina called this God's conditional intentions). God's will of action is His reason for determining the circumstances that actually occur in this world. This is why not everyone goes to heaven. This is why folks suffer. And this is why sin has entered the picture. Of course, this is not what God ideally desires, but for other reasons He has determined to take this course of action. In the long run, God must have sufficient reasons for allowing sin into this world although He doesn't prefer a world with sin. He must have a reason for allowing all kinds of sickness and suffering, etc.

God's will is a complicated issue. And I'm sure that I haven't even scratched the surface, but this is the direction that I'm headed with the subject.

How does affect prayer? Well, as I read the Bible, I can learn about God's ideal will and pray accordingly, but I must remember that it won't always work out because God may have something bigger at stake.