Our father knows best

          We are taught, and rightly so, that the sovereignty of God may sometimes override our prayer requests.  This truth can often chal-lenge our faith and trust in God.  It is far easier to speak those words, “THY WILL BE DONE”, than it is to accept what such may entail.

Scriptures affirm that Jehovah is “a God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He” (Deut.32:4).  Never is this truth more difficult to swallow than when God Almighty answers our prayers with a “No!”.  It is true that “the fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (Js.5:16), but it is also apparent that a righteous man or woman can sometimes ask of God and not receive.  Moses entreated God, Let me, I pray cross over and see that fair land…, yet God’s answer was “No!” (Deut.3:25).  David, a man after God’s own heart, aspired to build the temple but God told him, you shall not build a house for My name (1Chron.28:2-3).  The key to understanding these “rejections” is twofold:  our prayers must be “according to His will” (1Jn.5:14) and OUR FATHER KNOWS BEST! 

          The sovereignty of God is underscored in numerous stories in the Bible.  When Job, “a blameless and upright man”, seeks an answer to why he had to endure a calamity of such magnitude that we can hardly grasp it, God is not compelled to explain Himself (Job 40:1-2).  The apostle Paul entreated the Lord to remove his thorn in the flesh, but God’s response is a “no”, saying, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2Cor.12:9).  On the eve of His crucifixion Jesus prayed fervently, “let this cup pass from me” (Lk.22:41f), yet God’s will is done nonetheless and Jesus journeys onward from Gethsemane to Golgotha to face the horrible agony of forsakenness on the cross. 

          The real test comes when God says, “No!”, to our petitions.  How will we respond?  Can we, like Job and Paul and Jesus, truly entrust ourselves to “Him who judges righteously” (1Pet.2:23) and affirm by our actions that we believe our Father knows best?  This is the real litmus test of our faith.  Will we pass the test or will we fail?  Will our faith hold firm, allowing us to accept God’s will or will we be unhappy and angry with God for not choosing to do things our way?  If and when God’s answer to our persistent prayer is a “No!”, then it becomes our task to accept and practice the words taught to us by Jesus, “Not my will, but THINE be done”.  We must learn to do this willfully and not begrudgingly, and even more, with thanksgiving and contentment.  In the words of Job, The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away, BLESSED be the name of the Lord (Job.1:21).  Or, as Paul wrote, Therefore I am well CONTENT  with my weak- nesses (2Cor.12:10).  Will we walk in the very manner of our Lord Jesus, who for the JOY set before Him endured the cross… (Heb.12:2)?

                                                                                       Terry Siverd / Cortland Church Of Christ