Prayer. What a gift from God! If there is one thing we all learn about prayer it is this: We can’t “use” prayer to pry God open to something we want. We can’t “use” prayer to change God’s mind. Fundamentally, prayer is God’s invitation to each of us to let Him change us! And what a life privilege that is — to let God change us. And do we ever need changing! I need God to change me every single day of my life. So I pray to be in God’s Holy Presence, to be aware of His Divine and loving presence, and to know God’s will for me at that moment. And dear friends, when we pray as Jesus taught us to pray, here is what Jesus promises: 7 “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? 10 Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him” Matthew 7:7-11! But don’t deceive yourself, for Jesus is talking about true prayer here, not prayer that tries to manipulate and change God. In fact, that’s not even prayer. Whenever I have caught myself praying to change the mind of Jesus, inevitably I run back to God and ask for His mercy because I realize I have been “stuck on stupid!”
This promise above in Matthew that Jesus made demands some understanding of prayer. “Everyone who ask receives” is true, but the asking is of a particular nature. If, when we pray and we come to the Lord desiring only what the Lord wishes for us, then our prayer will be answered. But praying for what we want is very different from praying for what the Lord wants! When I pray for God’s will to be done in my life, and not my own will, then I know God will answer my prayer. I understand that God has heard me and will answer this prayer in His own perfectly loving way. I don’t care if I ever realize or see His answer; I just rest knowing He has heard me and He will answer my prayer because what I desire is what is in His mind, what is in His heart, what His will is for me and for the world. This is true prayer. True prayer enables me to accept and see correctly, with wide-open borders or parameters, and to accept humbly the infinite wisdom of God.
Let me say it this way: God always answers our prayers when our prayers are God’s prayers for us. And if you think about it, do you not want it exactly that way? After all, God wants only what is best for us all. So it makes perfect rational sense as well to pray for what God wishes. In every way, then, when we pray it is God-in-us who is praying! Don’t let your prayer be only about what you want. Make your prayer God’s prayer. Not yours!
Prayer is entering into an awareness of God’s presence and desiring God, who is present, to draw you into His loving heart and will for you. What we need to desire more than anything else in prayer is for God to take over our prayer. So when you pray, move over in the seat and let God sit in the driver’s seat! You be the passenger.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words”
Romans 8:26.
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” John 15:17.
“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you”
Matthew 6:6.
“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known” Jeremiah 33:3.
“Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” Matthew 6:9-13.
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