What Prayer is Not
It would serve us well to know what prayer is not. Prayer is not shaking our finger at God, telling Him what to do, getting Him to jump through our hoops, or getting what we want out of God. If this describes your prayer life than you have got it all wrong. You’ve got it backwards, having built God in your image.
Many people find their prayer life doesn’t seem to be a fruitful encounter with God, because they are praying this way. Jesus does tell us to ask for whatever we want in His name and it will be granted, but there’s more to it (Lk 11:9 and Jn 15:7).
Can I Really Ask for Anything?
You can ask for anything, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that God is going to give it to you. God is our Father, a good Father, and He wants what’s best for His children. He is not going to give us something that is just going to hurt us or prevent us from becoming all that He has created us to be. This is the tricky part.
After withdrawing about a stone’s throw from them and kneeling, he prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.”
~ Luke 22:42
When we are praying and asking for God to do something or give us something, we also have to ask if it is His will. Is what we are asking for in God’s plan for us to fulfill our potential? Is what we want God to do going to help us in the long run or just make us more comfortable in the present moment? We have to remember that God stands outside of time. He is eternal. We on the other hand are bound inside of time, progressing along in a linear fashion. But God sees us at our full potential, as saints. That is what He has created us to be (1 Thes 4:3-8). He stands at the moment of creation, making us ever anew (Rev 21:5).
His Will vs. Your Will
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed… hard (Lk 22:39-46). His prayer wasn’t just a laundry list of selfish wants, but it was life or death. He didn’t want to have to die if there was another way. So He asked God that if it were possible He might be spared from this painful death. But He finishes off the prayer saying “not my will but yours be done” (Lk 22:42).
This is important to note, because even though He asked for what He wanted, He acknowledged that what He wanted was not as important as what God wanted. This is where many of us are lost. We put our wants and desires above the will of God. If we do this we are never going to get anywhere.
Prayer is about coming to God and placing ourselves—our worries, our cares, our wants, our desires, our pains, our struggles—in His hands and asking Him to do His will. We must submit ourselves to Him. We must relinquish control in order for Him to work in us. This is prayer.