My heart says of You, “Seek His face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek. –Psalm 27:8
For most of my life, I had been disappointed after praying because it did not seem like anyone was listening. I prayed that my friend’s mother would get healed, but she died. I prayed that I would end up in a relationship with someone, but he married someone else. I prayed that my team would win a football (soccer) match, but we lost by two points. I prayed that my supervisor would take my side on an issue, but he seemed to side with the other person. I prayed that the police would find my uncle, that was kidnapped, alive and well, but he was killed. So what exactly is the point of prayer? Isn’t it supposed to change things? Isn’t it supposed to make things happen?
James tries to make us believe in James 5:16 that “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” He even goes further to tell us about a man, Elijah, that prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. I once prayed that it would not rain because my friend was getting married outside, but it still rained! Was I doing something wrong? Was I praying the wrong way? Was it because I wasn’t kneeling down? But I knelt down when I prayed for my friend’s mother. Maybe it was because I didn’t believe strongly enough. Maybe it was because I had doubts.
As I pondered on this a while ago, the Lord spoke to me and said that He did answer all of my prayers. I struggled with Him for hours, reminding Him of the times I prayed, and my prayers seemed to go unanswered. He then said to me; “remember my prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane to the Father? I prayed that if He was willing, He should take the cup from me, but not my will but His be done. He did not take the cup from me. Instead, He strengthened me to accomplish His will; I died, and now you can live.” He continued to tell me about the time that Paul prayed three times that the thorn in his side would be removed, but “I told him no, because my grace was sufficient for him, and my power was made perfect in weakness. I wanted to grow him.”
I was so confused, but when I got up and began to clean up, I noticed a quote I wrote down a while ago. It read, “The goal of a prayerful process is submission to God, silencing the “noise,” setting aside our own plans, getting our attitudes right, creating a moldable receptive heart and mind to the purposes of God, and reflecting and “hearing.”
Over the years, I have realized that I was often disappointed in prayer because I wanted to get God to join my agenda, and all He wanted to do was to get me to join His. It wasn’t that God did not answer my prayers, He did. His answers just were not always what I had in mind. Like any good Father, He didn’t always give me what I wanted because like a child, I often wanted things that weren’t necessarily good for me in the long run.
Dear friends, please let us always make it our prayer that ‘not my will, but His be done.’ This might be a tad difficult, but when we pray, we must be willing to submit our will to His and accept His response, even if it is not what we want to hear. Prayer does not always change things, but it can certainly change us if we are willing. His grace is indeed sufficient! Our Father knows what is best for us and would rather not let us have anything less. Instead, through submission in prayer, He invites us to a deeper walk with Him and strengthens us as He changes our hearts to desire His will -His good pleasing and perfect will.
Grace and peace be with you.
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