Word of Encouragement (08/31/2022)
But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” (Ex. 32:11-13); “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matt. 26:39)
Yesterday, we concluded our reflection with the importance and benefit of praying with Jesus, “Not my will but your will be done!” The question that arises is, “If this is how we should pray, why bother praying at all? Why don’t we just pray this prayer and be done with it instead of spending so much time and energy praying for things, which will be overridden by God’s will anyway?”
Such questions make a lot of sense if the result (that is, whether we will get what we want or not) is all we care about. But our interaction with God in prayer and life in general is not some kind of business transaction but a covenant relationship. The goal of prayer is not to convince or manipulate God to do what we want; it is to understand and embrace God’s will wholeheartedly (since God’s will is supreme, not ours). This is not accomplished by blind and mindless submission to whatever God’s will may be. Our will (what we want, in this case) is not something we can give up so easily. But our will (our faculty, in this case) is not something that goes away when we become Christian. Our will is an important part of our being as God’s image-bearer. Besides, what is our sanctification if not redirecting our will to follow God and His ways, not our own agenda? Prayer is a means by which our will is conformed to God’s will.
If so, how can our will be conformed to God’s will if our will is not brought into contact with God’s will? And how can we bring our will into contact with God’s will if we do not express it in our prayer? Prayer is where our will meets God’s. Through that encounter, we come to submit our will to God’s (at times, only after a prolonged period of arguing, protesting, and lamenting). This is why honesty before God is absolutely crucial. It is no virtue to hide our true feelings and desires before God and pretend that we are more pious than we really are. We are only deceiving ourselves since God knows what is going on in our hearts. As long as a patient denies his illness, he is far from healing recovery. What does it profit us to pray for a long time if we are not authentic before God?
What happens when we are honest before God? When we are (honestly) wrong, God can show us that we are wrong and why we are wrong. If there is a misunderstanding, God can clear it for us. If we are right, God will affirm it. It is through this process that our will gets shaped and molded by God. So, we should pray, “Not my will but Your will be done,” not at the beginning of our prayer and end our prayer there; we should pray it after we have expressed to God what our will is. Isn’t that what Jesus did? He prayed this prayer after praying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me...” (Matt. 26:39).
Let us bring our petitions to God earnestly and honestly. God desires and expects that from us. But after all that, let us have enough trust in God’s infinite wisdom and love for us to pray with all sincerity, “Not my will but your will be done!”