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About Jesus - Steve Sweetman Praying
Against God In Joel chapter 1
we read about locust infestations that devastated much of Israel. I understand these locust
invasions to represent enemy armies who attack Israel. Even though these armies
were enemies of God's people, Joel 2:11 and 25 describe them as being
God's armies, and why? They were instrumental in accomplishing God's will in judgment on the
obstinate nation of If you were a
praying Jew in Israel
when one of these armies attacked your nation, how might you have prayed? I
imagine that you might have asked God to deliver your nation from its
enemy. That would seem a
natural prayer to pray, but would it be the correct prayer to pray in that
particular instance? If you were a Jew
praying for deliverance, you would have been praying against God's will
because it was His will for these armies to attack your nation.
These attacks were meant to bring your people to their knees in
repentance. For this reason
Israelis should have prayed prayers of serious repentance, not prayers for
deliverance. Deliverance would
come, but not until repentance was realized in the lives of you and your
Jewish friends. There is a lesson
to be learned here. Some of
the negative things that come our way as Christians are actually God's way
to teach us something. If we
pray against them, we pray against God and we fail to benefit from His
will. Before we pray for
deliverance from difficulties we should seek to know God's will.
That's not always an easy task, but if we can pray
intelligently based on God's will, we will be the better for it.
I'm sure you would agree with me that praying against God's will is
not a good idea.
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