SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/19/2020 11:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Right
Understanding of God’s Will”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
10:6b
Message of the verse: “Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.”
In
today’s SD we begin by looking at what we could call the opposite side of God’s
will, the right understanding of it. As
we look at this verse we can see that God’s will is always done in heaven, and
the reason is that there is only one will in heaven, and that is God’s
will. There were two, but Satan was
tossed out of heaven. Now compare that
to how many wills we find on earth and if there are seven plus people on earth
at this time then there are that many wills on earth. One more thing and that is that the angels
who were not tossed out of heaven are doing God’s will in heaven and we will
look at this in the following paragraph.
We
can see that the angels were doing God’s will as David writes the following in
Psalm 103:20 “Bless the Lord, you His angels, mighty in strength who perform
His word, obeying the voice of His word.”
MacArthur adds “That is the way God’s will is done in heaven, and that is
the way believers are to pray for God’s will to be done on earth—unwavering,
completely, sincerely, willingly, fervently, readily, swiftly, and
constantly. Our prayers should be that
every person and thing on earth be brought into conformity with God’s perfect
will.”
Now
I want to quote from MacArthur’s book “Jesus’ Pattern of Prayer” to give us a
little more meat to the bones of these eight words that describe how angels do
God’s will in heaven.
“First,
unwaveringly. There’s never a
discussion. On earth the Lord prods and
pokes, and maybe we get moving sooner or later, but in heaven there’s an
unwavering commitment to His will.
“Second
completely. There are not alternatives,
no gaps, no omissions.
“Third,
sincerely. They are eager, waiting for
the next command so they can hurry to accomplish it.
“Fourth,
willingly. Do you know how many will
there are in heaven? One. There were two once, but one got kicked out.
“Fifth,
fervently. They are aggressive in doing
God’s will.
“Sixth,
readily.
“Seventh,
swiftly.
“And
eighth, constantly.”
Now
as we look at these eight words that describe how the angels do the will of God
in heaven, we can wonder why that it is not consistently done that way on
earth. I can give you the answer to this question, and I think that we will
look more in-depth at this answer later on, but the answer is “pride,” and I do
not think that that answer will surprise anyone.
As
we continue to look at this right understanding of and also an attitude towards
God’s will we will see that it is what might be called a sense of righteous
rebellion. That is rebellion that is opposed to Satan. As we pray “Thy will be done, on earth as it
is in heaven,” is to rebel against the worldly idea that sin is normal and
inevitable and should therefore be acquiesced to or at least it should be
tolerated. I think that if one things
about this they have to agree that there are times, probably too many times
when we tolerate sin in our lives. MacArthur adds “It is to rebel against the
world system of ungodliness, the dishonoring and refection of Christ, and also
the disobedience of believers. Impotence
in prayer leads us, however unwillingly, to strike a truce with wrong. To accept what is, is to abandon a Christian
view of God and His plan for redemptive history.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I study this prayer it is my desire to
learn what God wants me to learn about it, and then use what I have learned in
my prayer life, especially the things that are going on in our country.
My Steps of Faith for Today: God will continue to teach me to be a better
prayer warrior.
11/19/2020 11:49 AM
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