Praying According To The Will of God

Over at the Straight Up blog, Gerald Hiestand has a thought provoking essay on praying the will of God. He writes:

I’m increasingly inclined to think our customary use of “thy will be done” is not consistent with it’s use in Scripture. What is the “will” that we are asking to be done here? To make my point, it will be helpful to distinguish between the two “wills” of God (a distinction made by many theologians, self included). The first is God’s secret will, that which he has sovereignly ordained from the foundation of the world and which infallibly comes to pass. This aspect of God’s will cannot be known by mere mortals except in hindsight. The second aspect of God’s will is his moral will, that which is in line with his charachter and heart. At times, there is tension between these two wills, for not everything that God has ordained via his secret will is in immediate harmony with his moral will. The death of his Son would be a fine example. In and of itself, the death of Christ is not in keeping with God’s moral will. Yet the Father set aside his moral will (for a season) in order to further his secret will (which in turn ultimately furthered his moral will). So a certain event may be in keeping with God’s secret will, but contrary to his moral will.

Most often, it seems that when we pray “thy will be done” we are incorrectly referring to God’s secret will, his inscrutable decree ordained before the foundation of the earth. But this isn’t in keeping with Christ’s example in the Lord’s prayer. When Christ teaches us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” his underlying assumption is that we already know the basic contours the Father’s will in heaven—blessing, righteousness, justice, mercy, peace, and the like. In other words, when Christ prayed “Thy will be done” he was referring to God’s moral will (that which is in line with his character), not his secret will.

Of course we should always adopt a position of humility when making any request of God. He owes us nothing. And we should always keep in mind that God often chooses not to advance his moral will, for reasons only he alone can know. But biblically speaking, when we pray “thy will be done,” what we are really asking for is our that prayer—in as much as it is in keeping with God’s moral will—be answered.

Read the whole thing.