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Pray For What God Wants

(Midweek Devotion - 1 Timothy, 17 May 2023)

1 Timothy 2:1-4

     1 First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanks be offered on behalf of all people, 2 even for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 Such prayer for all is good and welcomed before God our Savior, 4 since he wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Today, we just read one of the important references for Christian’s primary discipline in prayer. We have heard many exhortations about prayers like what is our guide in prayer, how can we make our prayers effective, how often we should pray, benefits of praying, and even principles of prayers.

Praying is each and every Christian’s tool to communicate with God. This is the ordained means to respond in God’s Divine call and revelation to us through the Biblical knowledge we received and perceived. To continue to walk in faith, we need to extensively use this tools to speak before God.

But what most commonly neglected considerations in our prayer life is what we are to pray for? Normally, we tend to pray for what we need or what we want, most of the time. For me, there is nothing wrong with that as Jesus Himself encourage us to pray for our very needs and be persistent to it.

However, this time, The Bible instructs us to pray in behalf of all people. We received this apostolic mandate from the Apostle Paul to be an intercessor for others, not for our wants or desires but for God's, including those who are in authority which brings positive benefits of course to us, His elects, and that is to have a peaceful and quiet life in godliness and dignity.

The historic Christianity progresses in lots of persecution from first century and from time to time, this act of hostility to Christians is still happening in our day and age. But this is what we are expecting from the world as Christ warned us beforehand.

John 15:18-25

18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

Anyways, Paul is to pray in behalf of all including those in the authority that we may have peaceful and quiet life as a benefits of it. Moreover, this kind of prayer contents are what desirable in the site of the Lord for one reason that He wants all to be saved. Now, let me pause for a while as this verse gives way for universalist to think that because it says this way, the whole counsel of God means that God will save all.

Wants and Needs are two different things. In other english translations, they uses the word 'desires' or 'would have' or 'will have' for wants. This is what God desires as He displays His compassion to all men. But He also have to act in accordance to His nature and is not going to violate His other divine attributes such as His justice, His truth, His holiness and His righteousness.

For we understand, that the way God to save a person is not merely of words but of knowing the truth in Christ. Thus, Paul reiterates that in God's desires to save all people, he did not separate the gracious will of God the Father which is to come to the knowledge of truth (which is our Lord Jesus Christ - John 14:6). Paul explicitly told us the need to come to that knowledge of Christ (the way, the truth, and the life) because this is the means in which we are going to do greater things for God's desires to happen in our own lives and in the lives of all God's people.

That is why in our prayer, we need to spend time to bring about the will of God to save humankind, not in religious traditions of men but in the saving gracious knowledge of the Gospel, which is the power of God for our salvation (Romans 1:16). Therefore, prayer is the means of God's grace which is an important avenue for the salvation of others whom God will call through the proclamation of Good News, to save men from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

We are neither the one who will choose whom God will save nor the one who will know whom God will save. But we are tasked to pray for all people that God's desires to save all men may come through the knowledge of truth in Christ Jesus. This is the very reason that all Christians are called to come to Christ and learn from Him (Matthew 11:29), to know Him and found salvation through Him.

If we always pray to change this world into a better place, pray MORE that the desire of God will prevail regardless of this world a better place or not. For God has a better plan, greater than ours, in a far better place which He already promised beforehand.

Have a blessed midweek to all!

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