There is no more dangerous practice than that of praying to the Lord for permission to disobey Him. Yet this is often done. Some duty or service is revealed in the Word which brings the cross with it. It seems too hard a thing to do, and weak, faithless human nature asks to be excused.
Sometimes people feel that the Lord hears them and excuses them from doing what He says. The prayer to be excused is a confession that the command is there; and God cannot contradict His own Word.
But the Lord does not force man's choice. When the heart is set to disobey, He allows the desire of the fleshly heart to have its way. "Every man of the house of Israel that sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet; I the Lord will answer him that comes according to the multitude of his idols." (Ezekiel 14:4)
It is a terrible thing to be left to one's own way.--Present Truth, October 17, 1895.