Does God’s plan have space for my prayers?

In preparing to come on the church planting to Cardiff I often emphatically explained to my friends “I’m so excited about moving but I’m nervous to dream because it might not end up being how I envision it”. With their infinite prophetic wisdom, they often responded “it probably won’t”.

With our third week of our third lockdown under our belts this couldn’t feel more true.

For a couple of years I have wanted to use the freedom of my youth, with its minimal responsibilities, to behave radically for God. However, submitting myself to the monotony of lockdown living wasn’t the kind of ‘radical living’ I had envisioned.

This has left me questioning the idea of ‘God’s will’ and whether our desires and requests can influence God’s plan.

4 months ago I was dreaming about moving to Cardiff alongside a group of 4 other close friends. I fasted once a week for God to make a way for us all to get there. The potential of having close, established relationships around me seemed to remove fears of loneliness, ‘missing out’ and lost connections.

I was also fasting for my own job situation. I was incredibly unhappy within my current position. I wanted a job in Cardiff, where I could meet people and subsequently feel an affinity with the local community.

A couple of months later, 3 of my close friends had decided not to come for various personal reasons and I still hadn’t found a job. God opened up other doors enabling me to move (such as being able to work remotely in my current position) however, this was not what I had been hoping and praying for for. Another month later, Wales went into a national lockdown and tightened their restrictions more than any other country in the UK.

Whilst I did not question whether God had orchestrated these events, it did make me question how valid my hopes and dreams were to God. What was the point of presenting my requests to God if he was just going to do what he wanted anyway?

I felt God had dangled a carrot in front of my nose with false hopes of having my close friends being on this adventure alongside me.

However, he knows best, so maybe I should just be quiet and let him get on with his plan.

It was during this time that I found the following passage in John 14:14.

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.

This scripture would suggest that Jesus is encouraging a dynamic dialogue between God and his people.

There is an action and reaction involved. A request and an answer. To ask for something WILL, in fact, impact whether or not we will receive it or not.

However, it is important to note that the scripture does not say “you may ask me for anything and I will do it”. Instead, it states “you may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it”.

So what does it mean to ask for something in ‘God’s name’?

For me, this means understanding the deeper desires of our requests and presenting these desires to God, for him to use and fulfil in the way he choses.

I realised that when I was praying for my friends to come to Cardiff and for my job opportunity in Cardiff, I was praying out my desire for deep relationships and a sense of community.

The request for friends and the job were just my chosen manifestations of how I though these desires would best be met. I was praying out my desires in my own name, from my own understanding.

We have a good God, who created us and created these desires. He therefore knows the best ways to fulfil them.

Realising this, helps me to feel excited about seeing the ways God will answer my prayers and the way he has already fulfilled these desires as he has promised in John 14:14.

Maybe you are reading this post and you are reminded of all the prayers you have felt God has ‘ignored’. Maybe you are questioning the presence of God in your life or whether we have a God who wants dialogue and a relationship with his people.

I implore you to seek the base desire you wish to see fulfilled, lay it before God and get excited to see what he’s going to do with them.

Author: Emma Whitworth / January 23, 2021