Pray according to the Will of God

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:14, 15)


This is a wonderful promise from God, and I am convinced that, in general, most Christians do not take advantage of it as God desires for us to. What is it He says? We can have confidence God hears our prayers and will grant our requests on this condition: if we pray according to His will.

Of course we do not know His “secret” will. I cannot pray with absolute confidence that a shiny, new red Camaro will be deposited in my driveway tomorrow, the key with my name on it. But it certainly is not wrong for me to pray about a new car—rather God does want us to pray for our specific needs and even our desires, as long as those things are not out of line with godliness. But then I must leave it in the hands of God as to how He will work it all out. I can be confident God will provide my needs—that much He promises in His Word—but as to how and when He will do so, those things are His “secret.”

There is, however, an awful lot of God’s will that has been revealed to us, that we can know for sure. This is why I say the surest way to pray according to God’s will is to pray according to His revealed Word, the Bible. For example, I can know for sure God desires for me to obey Him--He commands this over and over in His Word--so I can pray with a great deal of confidence, "God, help me to obey You." In other words, when I pray this way, I am praying the type of prayer I know God likes to hear: it is a prayer according to His will, revealed for me in His Word.

If my six-year-old asks me to teach him to spell a certain word, I will do so with great eagerness because that is exactly the sort of thing I want him to learn and I have myself planned and determined for him to learn such things. Even so, God is eager to grant to us the very things He has commanded us or promised us or prepared for us. When we discover these things in His Word--and they are on every page--these are the very things we ought to use as the substance of our prayers.

God answers all sorts of prayers because He is a loving God and condescends to our weak way of praying them. But if you want to pray with more confidence, pray according to the known will of God. Pray concerning those things commanded and promised in His Word. Pray for what you know God desires for you and the others for whom you are praying.

“Great God in heaven, You know all things, and we definitely do not. But we do know that You have graciously revealed to us much of Your will, and we pray You would teach us to pray according to it. Grant to us confidence in our prayers, and grant to us the knowledge of Your will that bolsters such confidence. Give us the desire to do Your will and the desire to pray that Your will would be done—in our lives—as perfectly as Your will is performed by the angels in heaven. So we pray, dear God, according to Your will and according to Your Word, through Christ our Lord. Amen.”