Resist evil by facing it, not by turning your back and running from it. (The enemy will flee from you … you do not flee from the enemy!) Prayer then should be relinquishing your will to His.
Do what you can, and let Him lead as you obey and follow … trust and obey.
Let His will take precedence … He will not and cannot work against your will … until you surrender it to Him. You have to rest in the shelter of His arms, just as a baby rests in the shelter of its mother's arms and trusts her implicitly. ("Become as a little child.")
The catalyst for this article was my rereading the story (in a little booklet published by Guideposts magazine) of Mrs. Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose daughter was afflicted by a deadly form of malaria. Intense prayer seemed to have failed to remove it.
To make matters worse, the Hawthornes had sought medical help, and they were told that unless the fever broke by morning, death was imminent. (This, naturally, instilled great fear in the parents, as in countless other incidents. The medicos pronounce the sentence, and fear proceeds to bring it into fruition.*)
It was the lady's will only that her daughter live and not be taken from her … God's will was never considered … unlike Jesus at Gethsemane … not My will, but Yours, be done, no matter the cost to Him personally.
Why, you may ask, would God will for the girl not to continue her life here on earth? Well, it just might be that He had a better life in mind for her with Him in the heavenly realm and that her purpose for life here already had been fulfilled! However, we cannot know the big plan God has in mind for us, and there could have been other reasons that we cannot understand with our finite minds. We are not to question and demand to know why. We are simply to trust and obey—again, as children.
But your heavenly Father loves you and will give you the desires of your heart, if only you will trust Him to do it. You have to stop getting in His way and instead have faith and confidence only in Him and in His ability, not in the object of your own will, and certainly not in anyone else.
Let go of it, and let your will be His. To do that, you have to trust Him with every fiber of your being. Don't stand in His way.
Once you enlist His help, stand back, and watch Him work all things to your good. But don't try to coach Him as He works, no matter what your eyes or other senses tell you. He is the expert. To try to second guess Him would be like hiring Michelangelo to create a masterpiece for you and then your trying to tell Him how you want it to look and how to do it. That would be the height of arrogance, ignorance, and stupidity. In other words, it would be the sin of pride.
No, you let go of the project altogether and allow the Master carte blanche to create in His own inimitable way. You cannot limit Him in any way and still expect perfection.
The Hawthornes were standing in God's way and had never yielded to His will being done in the matter. Once Mrs. H. was willing to surrender her own daughter to His loving care completely, the fever broke, and she was healed when her mother realized that she could trust God's love and totally surrendered her daughter to Him. She trusted Him alone, and faith was the key that unlocked the door.
*Remember what Job said: "What I feared most has come upon me." What had he feared? The loss of his children … remember, he sanctified his children early every morning and made burnt offerings for each one, in case they may have sinned or cursed God in their hearts, and this he did continually. Job 1:5
The writer spent her early years in the legal arena and the last 23 years in property management. She has been an avid Bible student since 1987 and became an online publisher in 2001. She still publishes her bi-weekly ezine, 'elf Expressions Ezine, a collection of positive tips, hints, and advice offered with humor, inspiration, and other goodies for anyone who is inclined to read. The emphasis these days is on the finer points of Christianity. Guidance, mentoring, inspiration, English lessons, editing, and proofreading services for entrepreneurs and online marketers are also offered. Subscribe if you like at http://www.elfexpressionsezine.com.