God’s Will – Best Will
In Philip Yancey’s Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? he confesses “I do not doubt that God answers prayer. Rather, I struggle with the inconsistency of those apparent answers.” (p. 220). Why does God answer some passionate prayers yet seemingly ignore others? Why does one praying Christian survive in a plane crash while another equally praying perishes? Is God only good, loving, and powerful sometimes?
God has said of His actions, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways… As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.” (Isa. 55:8-9). In short, He is saying we cannot now comprehend Him. Like a wise and loving parent speaking to child He says, “You will understand when you are older.” We will understand when we are further along in becoming all that He intends.
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; [“only a reflection as in a mirror,” NIV] but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (1 Cor. 13:12, KJV).
A time is coming when we will understand God in ways similar to His understanding of us! What grandparent has not said to their now adult and parenting child, “See, now you understand…”? So now is for us simply to be obedient children: to give to Him those things which he takes from us, to receive from Him those things which are disagreeable to us, and to accept his “No” when we desire so much that He would say “Yes.”
The child must know above all else that his parents love him and that it is with good reason that they take from him that dangerous plaything, give him that disgusting medicine, and sometimes must say “No.” Sadly, however, many children do not have loving parents, or do not learn until they are much older that many actions their parents did were motivated by love.
The important thing for us as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ is that we do not make the same mistake — thinking God is not loving at all when in fact we just can’t see the whole picture. Where loved ones or suffering is involved this can be very difficult indeed.
We must remember Christ Our Savior cried great tears with blood that He might avoid the cross but there was no other way. The Father said “No,” and the Son chose to accept that answer, even embrace it. He did so not in order to sit “at the right hand of the throne of God,” but to save lost souls like you and I. He “endured the cross, scorning its shame” for the better plan and Will of God, “bringing many sons and daughters to glory” (Heb. 2:10, 12:2).
God may not always answer our prayers our ways, but God’s Will is always the best Will no matter what that Will may look like today.
Press on…
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