My Will be Done…

Matthew 6:9,10  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.

When facing the trials of life, I have always prayed in a fairly predictable manner.  I have always asked God to deliver me from those trials.  God, fix this situation and bend it to my will.  Here is what I want, now make it happen.  This is not just how I pray.  This is my attitude or approach to life in general.  I am in charge and I pursue what I want.

It is the nature of my flesh to approach life and God this way. I pursue that which I desire and I think God is my big helper in the sky.  Then, when things do not go the way I want or God does not answer my prayers, I am aggravated with him.  Why did you not fix this situation?  Why did you not save me from this pain?  I prayed, didn’t I?

I want faith but I want it to be about me and my will.  What good is God if He does not make my life better?  To this, Jesus says, Let me show you how to pray. Let me show you how to live.  It is not, in fact, all about you.  You are not the center of the universe and you are not the point of it all.  Faith is about pointing your life at God and following his will, not yours.

Jesus said that when I pray, I am to start with: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name… It may be that God just likes to hear me tell him how wonderful he is, but I think this is probably more for me than him.  I am to start out my prayer in proper position before God, understanding that He is the one in control.

Your kingdom come, your will be done… This, I think, is the hardest prayer, but it is the one I should always be praying.  In good times and in tough times, I should always be pursuing God’s will instead of my own.  I so often have this backwards.  When I encounter a trial, I naturally ask God to fix it.  What I should ask is for God to fix me.  It is not that He needs my permission to accomplish what He wants.  It is that I need to have the proper attitude before him.  It is usually me that needs to be changed.

It is not that God does not care about me and my good.  He is absolutely interested in what is best for me. It is just that what I think is best for me and what God thinks is best for me are often two very different things.  Jesus says I am to surrender my will and follow the will of the only one who is actually capable of knowing exactly what I need.