The sixth consideration from Thomas Brooks to silence our souls in afflictions surprised me. He tells us now that we should remain silent because otherwise we will be “found fighters against (our) own prayers” (I-330). This in itself was not surprising but where would you expect him to go from there? I fully expected him to go to Psalm 66:18 and talk about how our sin hinders our prayers but he didn’t. Here is what he said instead:
“How often have you prayed that the will of God may be done, yea, that it may be done on earth, as the angels, those glistering courtiers, those princes of glory, do it now in heaven (Matthew 6:10). When troubles and afflictions come upon you, the will of God is done, his will is accomplished; why then should you fret, fling and fume, and not rather quietly lie down in his will, whose will is a perfect will, a just and righteous will, a wise will, an overruling will, an infinite will, a sovereign will, a holy will, an immutable will, an uncontrollable will, an omnipotent will, and an eternal will? Certainly you will but add affliction to affliction, by fighting against your own prayers, and by vexing and fretting yourselves when the will of God is done. It is sad to see a man to fight against his friends, it is sadder to see him fight against his relations, it is saddest of all to see him fight against his prayers; and yet this every Christian doth, who murmurs and mutters when the rod of God is on him.” (I-320)
Thomas Brooks is reminding us that it does not make any sense to pray “your will be done” and then complain when it happens. Really, the issue here is not so much prayer as it is resigning ourselves to the will of God. We need to learn to say “if the Lord wills we will do this and that” but we also need to learn to say “this and that happened because the Lord willed it”. Think about each one of the adjectives he used to describe God’s will and you will be well on your way to lying down under it.
His will is perfect: how many things cannot be improved? What have you ever done that could not have been done better?
His will is just and righteous: it is exactly as it should be. There is not even a shade of anything immoral or wrong with what God had done.
His will is wise: there is no consideration that God has missed, no piece of information he should have considered but failed to. God made the best decision based on the best information.
His will is overruling: even if you don’t like it, there is nothing you or anyone else can do to overrule what God has decided.
His will is infinite: it encompasses all things that come to pass and so our personal affairs are actually a pretty miniscule part of the big picture. Are we really going to try to have ‘all things’ bent for our benefit?
His will is sovereign: you did not need to sign a waiver to relinquish control for God’s will to happen. God did not ask your permission because He did not need it.
His will is holy: it is sacred. It is set apart. It is not a common thing that just anyone has had their hands on. It is out of the ordinary and special in the most absolute sense possible.
His will is immutable: as an expression of the unchanging character of God and flowing from the unchanging heart of God. It does not depend upon any random whim and has no flux.
His will is uncontrollable: it cannot be manipulated in any way. No one can blackmail God and no one is owed anything by God so his will cannot be forced by anyone or anything.
His will is omnipotent: there is nothing in the universe backed by greater power than the will of God. The shortest list in the world is the things God has tried to do and failed.
His will is eternal: it has been set from eternity past. What goes on in your life did not just come to God’s mind in a flash yesterday. This was set in place before Adam laid eyes on Eve.
But what does it mean to “quietly lie down in his will”? On the one hand we are to groan for what life should have been like. You cannot weep with the weeping if you are not disappointed with what has come to pass. As well, we are to use whatever means God’s provides to escape troubles. The fact that your car starts to skid doesn’t mean it is God’s will for you to fly off the bridge and that you should therefore let go of the wheel. How do we accept what God has done without falling into a kind of slavish fatalism?
I think we have a great, actually a perfect, example to lead us by watching Christ in Gethsemane. It was not an easy thing for him to face the will of God by becoming our propitiation on the cross. He certainly groaned and even looked for another way and was yet without sin. It would seem then that we can say we don’t want this, we wish there was another way but that if this is what God has for us, we will walk through it. I have only watched the first few minutes of “The Passion of the Christ” but the Gethsemane scene has stuck with me. If you haven’t seen it, when Jesus rises from prayer he steps on and crushes a serpent’s head. It never happened in the gospels but it struck me as highly appropriate. If we can remember whose will it is that rules our lives then we too will say, “Your will be done”. Then we can stand to crush the serpent’s head and silence the steady stream of lies about being on equal footing with the Almighty that he has been whispering in our ears since Eden.
For further consideration, which of the descriptors of God’s will struck you the most? Try to fill out the definition and ‘apply it to yourself’. Talk to your heart and remind yourself of your place.
Me and Brooks 