Today’s reading is Luke 21:1-22:71. 

We read Jesus’ most famous prayer in Luke 22:42. “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.”

We know from Matthew’s account that Jesus prayed this prayer for about an hour and then did so again two more times. The writers have whittled down the prayer to its main thrust and given it to us in encapsulated form, however, this brief description of the pray packs a punch.

In fact, it provides the key to having God say, “Yes” to all our prayers.

Sadly, some who have been attracted to this post by the title, aren’t going to like what they read. Too many people view prayer as the means to bend God to our will. They think prayer is treating God like a vending machine. Drop in a couple prayers and out pops our order. It is just not like that.

Prayer is actually about bending us to God’s will. If we want God to answer, “Yes,” to our prayers, we need to align our will with His. As we become more like Him, our wants and wishes will be more in line with His and He will grant our requests. Of course, there are those issues where we don’t know God’s specific will. That is where Jesus’ prayer is such a blessing. We can lay out our desires before God, but show our submission by pointing out that more than our will, we want God’s will. We know we are finite and do not see all the sides of every issue. We know God is wiser and will do what is right if we will only surrender to Him. 

We can pray as Jesus does, “Here is what I want, Father. But more than what I want, I want whatever it is that You want.” God will always say, “Yes,” to that and at that point, prayer will truly have worked its power in our lives–not because we got what we prayed for, but because we allowed prayer to make us more like God.

***Question: What do you do to help keep your prayer life on track?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC