If there were a door to the throne room of God, do you ever feel your prayers sit in silence on its doorstep? Afterall, you prayed earnestly, you prayed in Jesus’ name, and your prayer request seemed of a holy nature. So, why does your prayer seem to sit on the doorstep and no one opens the door?
I have found that when I am asked to pray for someone, and all I have is the person’s first name and a brief summary of what to pray for, I can pray earnestly with authentic compassion for their need. I can honestly ask that God would answer my prayer according to His perfect will and to grant grace to those for whom He has a different purpose.
But what happens when there is a desperate need concerning a loved one with whom we have an intimate connection? Are we as willing to surrender our will to God’s perfect will? To willingly submit our hearts for His purpose and not ours? To yield our desires to bring Him glory?
What about Psalm 37:4? “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Surely God will grant believers the desires of their hearts, right? But then, verse 5 continues, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” To commit your way means to “roll onto” the Lord, and that paints a beautiful picture of trusting in Him, of surrendering our will to His perfect will. And therefore, He will bring the outcome to pass according to His perfect will.
Sometimes we see the outcome from His perspective, and other times, we learn to trust the outcome into the hands of our faithful, holy, sovereign, and omniscient God, and receive His grace that he lavishes on us. We learn that God can be trusted whether we experience an outcome we consider as victorious or not.
I have come to know, but have not mastered, that prayers without complete submission (or at least to be made willing to surrender) to His will become hollow. If we want something our way, in our time, and in the manner we think, our prayers will only echo in silence on the doorstep. Our response to seemingly unanswered prayer reveals whom or what we trust. When God’s glory is our goal, we will pray often with our hearts, our minds, and our wills surrendered to God.
Surrendering our wills to God’s will is a long process, so be encouraged. Every trial and every desperate situation are meant to take us another step closer to totally trusting God and fully surrendering our wills to His sovereignty in prayer. God is for us and not against us. Patience with us is one of God’s fully developed attributes.
PRAYER Acrostic
Place
Relationships
Around
Yaweh
Expecting
Results