Prayer : Aligning Our Hearts, Not Changing His
What is prayer? The dictionary defines it as a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship. We see nowhere in this definition or throughout scripture that prayer is some sort of barter system. Prayer is a form of worship!
As part of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus teaches his disciples about prayer. This is where we can find The Lord’s Prayer. Matthew 6:9-13 says...
“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.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.”
You can see the breakdown of this prayer in the list below. We can then model our everyday prayers after the way that Jesus taught His students to pray. (Bonus...can you figure out which verse matches with each characteristic of His prayer?)
Worship. Allegiance. Submission. Petition. Confession. Deliverance.
Later, we learn from Jesus as He prays before His arrest. He prays asking God to remove the burden, but only if it’s His will (see Luke 22:42).
Both of these prayers from Jesus teach us how we should approach God in prayer. In awe, in worship and in submission. It’s easy to say we believe God is in charge, but do we really believe in God’s sovereignty? He exists outside of time; His plan is far greater than we can imagine; He knows every second of creation and how it will all work to bring Him glory. Our job? To live life at His feet with our eyes on eternity and our hearts aligned to His.
Since God is both omniscient and immutable, we can trust that His plan is best. We put our hope and trust in these facts and His character. We can approach God and submit to His will instead of trying to manipulate His plan. This allows us to continue in the process of sanctification and becoming more like Christ. Because even as Christ asked to have His suffering taken from Him, He submitted to the Father’s will. God works all things out for the good of the Kingdom and His glory — what a joy it is to partner in this plan, even when His plan is different than ours.
