Christian Living

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Don’t Pray Yourself Out of God’s Purpose!

They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul. Psalm 106:13-15;

Don’t pray yourself out of the purpose of God! It is very possible for a believer to pray himself or herself out of God’s purpose and perfect will. The fact that you pray for something and you receive it is not a guaranty that you are in the purpose or perfect will of God. But you may want to question in your heart ‘if it is not God’s will that I have something, why will God give it to me in the first place?’. The answer is simple: If you present your desires to God and insist on having them without giving Him the opportunity to reveal to you what His mind is on the issues, God may let you have your desires but that does not mean that He approves of them. God is usually not excited to give us anything that does not support or contribute to His perfect will or purpose for our lives!

The lives of the children of Israel are available to us as examples. There are two ways to learn: you can either learn by experience or by examples. The children of Israel missed the purpose of God and paid dearly for it. They were all wasted in the wilderness and never made it to the Promised Land because they were always insisting on their own ways. They resisted God’s perfect will and purpose but insisted on their own desires at all times. The scripture says ‘God gave them the desires of their heart but sent leanness into their souls’. They had what they wanted always and never gave God the opportunity to say ‘NO’! They had their own desires but these became snares to their souls; they were distressed, empty and miserable, all because they insisted on their desires.

Consider it a great blessing if God denies you what you desire! As a child of God you must understand that your Heavenly Father is eternally good and loving; if He says ‘NO’ to your request or desire, that does not mean He hates you. You must learn to accept ‘NO’ when God says “NO”! When the time of crucifixion was drawing near, Jesus took time to pray while in the garden of Gethsemane. As He prayed, He figured out the suffering, humiliation, pain, agony and shameful death of the cross, it was not His desire to go through that experience. He desired something else, He wished God could let Him escape the cross. But almost immediately, He realized that it was part of God’s perfect will and purpose for Him to go to the cross, and He changed the focus of His prayer, ‘Not as I will (not my desire) but Your will be done’. If Jesus had insisted on having His own way, God would not have stopped Him, but He would have only succeeded in praying Himself out of the purpose of God as the Saviour of mankind!


Have you considered the fact that there was no time God said ‘NO’ to the requests of Jesus Christ during the days of His flesh? The reason is simple: all the requests and desires that Jesus ever prayed to have were according to the perfect will and purpose of God. Jesus never pursued or desired to have anything that did not have relevance to the purpose of God for His life. Having known the will of the father that the work of salvation of mankind would not be complete without death of the cross, Jesus gave up His own desires and gave in to the will of the Father, the painful death of the cross.
One decision you must make in advance as you proceed in your journey in life is not to pursue your own desires at the expense of the purpose of God. You must learn to pursue only those things that have relevance in the fulfillment of the purpose of God for your life.

Shalom.

Ezekiel Olukolajo
(c) May 2011

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