Luke 11:2b
“Your kingdom come.[c]Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.”
One common story that many of us heard when we were young is the story of a genie in a bottle and upon it being set free, it gives the individual who set it free three wishes and he will grant them, no matter how ridiculous the wishes are. Sometimes we go to God in prayer with that kind of attitude. We expect God to wave around his magic stick and voila!! We have what we asked for. When that does not happen, we get disappointed and we think God is not a good good father after all.
James 4:3 NJKV
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” Selfish prayers, that’s what I call them. Prayers that are self-focused, prayers that stem from a place where there is no relationship which leads to treating God like an ATM machine.
As we learned yesterday, God invites us to relate to him as a father, when we do so, then we begin to understand his heart and thus we are able to pray his will. We have to recognize that God is perfect and so is his will hence “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Think about this, heaven is not experiencing all the troubles that we have to deal with everyday here on earth. Why is this so? Because God’s will is being done in heaven and we his children are supposed to connect in relationship with him to make the same a reality here on earth. Jesus was so in tune with the Father that he said he only does that which he sees the father doing.
To think that there is no prayer that Jesus made that was a miss is amazing, and we can get to the same level if we truly connect with the father in relationship.
To mature in prayer is to get to that place where it is no longer about you and what you want, but rather it becomes about God and what he wants because you have an understanding that his will is perfect and he has the best for you. It is to be like Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, the place of pressing and still say, not my will but yours be done.
That can only happen when we trust God fully and for that to happen, we have to know him and for that to happen we must build a relationship with him!
Reflective Thoughts
Have you ever stopped to consider what most of your prayers are all about? Is it always about what you want God to give or do for you or is it about Him and what he wants?
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Do you trust God enough to allow him to chose what’s best for you? Is that reflected in your prayer life?
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What does God want?
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