Pray a Prayer that Always Gets God's Affirmative Answer
George F. Howe
What God wills is
always going to transpire, and everything that is not part of His plan will
never come to pass. He is completely sovereign, so every aspect of His divine
desire is destined to be fulfilled without fail; see Joshua 23:14 (all God's
promises are fulfilled, not one of them fails). If you pray a prayer that is
known to be part of God's will, you can be certain the request will be granted.
Let's see what kind of prayer that might be.
Matthew 18—Christ's Parable of the Lost Sheep
Christ said that it is not in the
heavenly Father's program for one of His wandering sheep to “perish”—Matthew
18:14. In positive terms, Jesus was
saying: it IS your heavenly Father's will that all sheep NOT perish, where
“perish: (Greek apolEtai), means “to be lost” and NOT to perish designates
salvation. Jesus thereby confirmed that all sheep will get saved, in accordance
with His Father's will.
Some Bible
passages like Luke 13:5, do indicate that certain
people will perish. These verses, however, refer to temporary judgment, and are
not in conflict with Christ's saving statements in Matthew 18:14, in John 12:32
(that if He is crucified, Jesus will draw ALL men unto himself), and in other
Bible texts, as well. One of these many verses says that God will not endlessly
contend in anger with lost people because He knows that judgment of such
extreme severity would over-tax the spirits and souls of those very people whom
He has created (Isaiah 57:16). Paul taught that that the Lord will have mercy
on all people (Romans 11:32). Paul was also inspired to write that the
“destruction” dealt out to evil-doers will be for the Glory of God and will
come straight from God's “face.” It will be “age-enduring” (aiOnion-aiwnion)
and not everlasting in its span--II Thessalonians 1:7-9.
The lost sheep in
the Matthew 18 parable represents all who have been wandering from God, the
Shepherd. Those wanderers do not remain forever lost but are rescued by the
Shepherd, after which there is much rejoicing
What Bearing Do Little Children in Matthew 18:10 Have on the
Subsequent Parable?
Before stating the parable concerning
the lost sheep, Jesus spoke about little children by saying that their angels
are “always before the Father”--Matthew 18:10. But the sheep in the parable
which follows (verses 12-15) are not limited to young animals. They are sheep
in general (probata) and not little lambs (amnos).
Isaiah 53:6, Psalm 100:1-3, and Matthew 18:12-15 Teach the
Ultimate Reconciliation of All
“All we like sheep have gone astray,”
Isaiah wrote (53:6) and his words were in congruity with the psalmist who had
commanded “all the earth” to worship, to sing joyful songs, and to shout
for joy to the Lord—Psalm 100:1-2. Still
addressing the whole world, the author of Psalm 100 proclaimed in verse
3 “WE [the whole world] are His people and the SHEEP of His pasture.”
The sheep in Isaiah 53:6, in Psalm 100:3, and in Matthew 18:12-15 all
demonstrate that God is going to save all people, with no limitations of
time or space.
What about Matthew 18:11 which Is Present in some Bible
Versions and Absent in Others?
Matthew 18 verse 11 is found in the
old King James Bible but was not included in several modern translations. This
is because the Greek text used for the earlier King James contained that verse,
while the manuscripts upon which the modern translations were based did not.
But this in no way detracts from the truth of verse 11 because Matthew 18:11 is
almost the same as Luke 19:10, a verse about which there are no manuscript
questions. “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost” is what
Matthew 18:11 says while “The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which
was lost” is the corresponding phrase in Luke 19:10. Both verses show that
Jesus purpose in appearing on earth was to save lost people. Since all people
are “lost people,”
Christ will seek and save everyone as these verses plainly
proclaim.
Peter Made the Same Point
“The Lord is not
slow with His promise, as some count slowness; but is long-suffering to us, not
willing that any should perish, but that all people should come to repentance”
II Peter 3:9. Here Peter showed that the reason God may appear to delay in
fulfilling His promises is not that He is slack or tardy. It results because of
His patience as a kind Father, leading His children to repent. It is the
forbearance of the loving God Who will not allow one person to perish forever.
Thus Peter concurred with the other Bible writers in showing that God's will
and plan is going to prevail for all people, bringing bring them to repentance
and not to everlasting punishment.
Pray a Prayer that Will Be Answered “YES”
Finally, every prayer requesting God
to save some person could be called a “slam-dunk” prayer because it will
invariably receive a positive reply. There is no need to even attach the
God-given caveat, “...if it be Your will...” because
we have been told throughout the Bible that it IS God's will that ALL
people repent and get saved. Knowing this, let us pray earnestly for God to
save people and then let's go our way rejoicing, realizing that God will do
that work.
Let us pray that
even people who have passed away will receive the faith of Christ. We need not
limit our prayers to the grief-stricken relatives of those who have died but
can (and should) intercede directly for dead lost souls. There is nothing in
the Bible prohibiting such prayers on behalf of those who have died. God can
and will perform salvific work on their behalf—Romans 14:9 (Christ died and was
raised in order that He might be the God of the dead and of the living), Ruth
2:20 (God has not stopped showing His kindness to the living and to the dead),
and I Peter 4:6 (the gospel was preached to the dead people also in order that
after judgment they might live unto God in the Spirit.)