SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/18/2020 9:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “The Wrong Understanding of God’s
Will”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
6:10b
Message of the verse: “Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.”
We
continue with our quotation from “Jesus’ Pattern of Prayer” by John MacArthur.
“God’s
will is that men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, but not all
men do. God’s will is done in heaven,
but it is not always done on earth. You
say, well God allows those things. That’s right.
But do not make the mistake of calling them the expressions of His will.
“It
is not God’s will that people die, otherwise why would He come to destroy
death?
“It
is not God’s desire that people go to hell, or why would He die and provide the
salvation that keeps them from going there?
He made hell for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41).
“I’m
confident that God allowed man the choice to do good or evil. I believe man has a choice; I also believe
God is sovereign, and that’s another of those paradoxes I have to accept. God has allowed sin; He has allowed the cup
of iniquity to be full. But it is not the
expression of His will.
“God
is not responsible for sin, and He is not responsible for its
consequences. Matthew 10:28 says, ‘Fear
not them which kill the body…but rather fear him which is able to destroy both
soul and body in hell.’ That refers to
God. God will destroy soul and body in
hell. It cannot refer to Satan, because
he is one who will himself be destroyed eventually.
“Yet
2 Peter 3:9 says that God is not willing that any should perish. God’s holiness, justice, and righteousness
must provide for dealing with sin, but death is not God’s will. He wept over the city of Jerusalem and said, ‘Thou
that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent into thee, how often
would I have gathered thy children, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under
he wings, and ye would not.’ (Matthew 23:37).
“God
so loved the world that he gave His Son.
Why? That men might be saved from
judgment.
“Why
then did God allow sin?
“That
is a question theologians have discussed for a long time. Lucifer fell.
How did that happen? Did pride
come from inside him? No, he was
perfect. Did it come from outside
him? No, the environment was
perfect. Where did it come from? I don’t know.
“God
knows. Lucifer sinned.
“Then
God had two options: to destroy Lucifer
immediately or to allow evil to run its full course. I believe God chose that latter rather than
have the constant possibility of another rebellion. He let the uprising go full blast, and it
will ultimately run itself out, like a comet that fades, forever dead and never
to rise again.
All
eternity will be saved from another sinful expression. God let it run. He let it gather all the host of angels who
wanted it. He let it gather the hearts
of willing men, all the while providing a way of escape for every man who would
come to him. He has allowed evil to run
its course, because He sees the bigger picture of all eternity, but during this
time when evil is running the gamut, it is not by any stretch of the
imagination the will of God.
“It
fits within His tolerance only in order that it may be destroyed. So you cannot say everything is God’ will. Such a statement is simplistic.
“There
are also some who pray, ‘Thy will be done,’ with theological reservations. To them it’s theology, simply God’s doing
what He’s doing because He runs everything and it’s all cut and dried. No pleading, no intensity, no passion. I can’t honestly say I ever met anybody who
really took this hard line who had much of a prayer life.
“I
wonder if that attitude can every bring about a heart like David’s who said, ‘O
how I love thy law!’ (Psalm 119:97).
“When
we say, ‘Ty will be done,’ we are not factually affirming theology with
indifference. We have a responsibility
to be personally involved.
“In
Luke 18, Jesus was trying to teach that men ought always to pray and not to
faint. In other words, you don’t want to
just stop praying—you don’t want to become weary, lose heart, or become
indifferent. And then He tells a story:
“There
was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in the city; and she
came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.’
“She
had been wronged, and she wanted the king to mete out justice. He would not do it for a while, ‘but
afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet
because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual
coming she weary me.’
“He
was so sick of hearing the woman; he was going to do what she asked just to get
rid of her. If an unjust judge will give
justice to a badgering woman, what will a just, loving, righteous, caring
Father God give to His children?
“The
parallel Jesus drew was obviously not between God and the Judge, because there
is no parallel at all, but between the widow and the petitioner. The woman refused to accept an unjust
situation, and she persisted with her case.”
Now
the following paragraph in this quotation is the answer that I was seeking when
I wanted to know how to pray for the ongoing election in our country:
“That
is a good word for us. We have a right
to refuse to accept certain situations in the world. We have a right to refuse to accept the way
things are, and to pray persistently that God would do them the way they ought
to be done.” The more I find out about
this election the more I am understanding that it was the most crooked election
that has ever happened in our countries history and I will pray the way this
paragraph has said as I have “a right to refuse to accept the way things are,
and to pray persistently that God would do them the way they ought to be done.”
“I
believe praying in this way is an act of rebellion against the world in its fallenness. It is a rebellion against accepting as normal
what is pervasively abnormal. It is
rebellion against the usurper and against every agenda and scheme and
interpretation and deed and word and movement at odds with the will of God.
“We
literally have to assault the gates of heaven. We will not stand by and let our
theology and our passive resignation or our resentment assign it all to God’s
will.
“It
is not God’s preference. We must pray, ‘Thy
will be done in earth,’ because it is not being done on earth.
“Jesus
never accepted the status quo. He didn’t
say, ‘Oh, well, the cross, its’ Your will.’
He said in effect, ‘Father, does it have to be this way? I rebel against this sinfulness. I rebel against the power of sin to take My
life. I rebel against the necessity for
bearing sin. I rebel against these
things that violate the sanctity of Your holy universe.’
“He
was in the midst of His rebellion against the fallenness of the world, and the
disciples were sleeping.
“How
about your prayer life? Are you praying,
‘Thy will be done in earth,’ because you feel you have no choice? Are you indifferent due to your theology?
“There
are better reasons to pray, ‘Thy will be done.’”
In
my conclusion I certainly believe it was the will of the Father for Jesus to
die on the cross for the world as John 3:16 tells us, however I certainly can
see the humanness of Jesus as this was the weakest moment of His life as He
prayed in the garden. After all He was
human and He was God, and I can’t explain that either.
11/18/2020 10:26 AM
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