pansy prayer

so...I've been thinking... I know! You're in for an epic post, but it's important this time. The topic of prayer has come up recently at church. Our preacher has referred to saying, "if it's Your will..." as pansy prayer. I am not too sure about this. I am pretty sure I disagree. I know that we need to be determined in prayer. We need to be specific in prayer. We need to be persistent in prayer. However, I do think that saying what I want/need etc and leaving it at that for God to say yes, no, and wait, isn't exactly correct prayer.

The example of Jesus' disciples praying to heal people was used. It was said that they never said, "If it's your will heal this person." They just said, "be healed." But Jesus told them to heal people. I think that is pretty clear that it is God's will when He himself told them to do it, don't you?

In Ephesians 5:15-17 (from yesterday's post) It says, "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the says are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord it."

There is a cross-reference to Romans 12:2 which says, "And do not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

That defines the will of God in very general terms, so I decided to do a quick topical study on the will of God. I just looked up "will" in the topical index of my Bible and then used my exhaustive concordance to look up the word referring to will, ie. "not wishing", "will", etc...to know if the root words are the same or if they mean different things.

This is what I found...
(this is all just out of my Topical index)
The will of God is defined in terms of:
* salvation - basically, God's will is for everyone to repent and no one to perish.
(Matt 18:14, 2 Peter 3:9 w/cross-reference to Hab. 2:3, about the second coming)
* belief in Christ - starting in v.47, paraphrasing: someone said to Jesus, "look your mother and brothers" Jesus said, "who is my mother and who are my brothers...those who do the will of God are my mother, sisters, and brothers."
(Matt 12:50)
* eternal life - "and this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." - It is God's will that all believe and receive eternal life.
(John 6:39, 40)
* thanksgiving - "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." - Not too hard to understand...pretty self-explanatory.
(I Thess. 5:16-18)
* sanctification - "For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess your own vessel in sanctification...

...ok this is all I could get through today, but I want to finish and I will post again with the rest tomorrow...thank goodness, right?! Enough with the epic posts!!
(I Thess. 4:3-8)