Finding Freedom In Prayer To A Sovereign God

“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;

nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”—Matthew 26:39

I love God, and I love how big and massive and beautiful He is. I also love how He is in control of all things. (Psalm 135:6) However, as God began to deepen and widen my view of His sovereignty, something started to happen in my prayer life. A tinge of fear started to arise when praying certain things. If God is over all things and is accomplishing His will through everything, are my prayers an attempt to assert my will over His? When I pray, “God please heal them of their sickness,” what if it’s not God’s will do to that? Am I trying to tell God what to do? Shouldn’t I just be quiet and trust He is doing everything according to His good and perfect plan? This really bothered me. But I knew that in His word, God asks His children to bring their requests to Him, (Philippians 4:6) and there was the beginning of a change in my prayer life. The Phrase My first response to this tension in my heart and mind came through a phrase I began using in my prayers. Any time I would bring a request to the Lord that I uneasy about, I would follow it with something along these lines: God let your will be done, and give us the grace we need to walk through it. As I saw more and more of God’s sovereignty in His word, the more this phrase felt so necessary in my prayer life. And honestly, I welcomed it, felt comforted by it, and still do. I felt too uncomfortable coming to God and asking Him to alter mine, and even someone else’s situation in life. How am I to know what God may be working in that person’s life through that? How am I to know that the pain and struggle they are experiencing isn’t exactly what God has for them? (James 1:2-4) So I would still make my requests to the Lord, but this phrase kept coming with them. I didn’t fully understand it then, but God was shaping and growing my own heart in this struggle. He was shaping my desires in prayer to be more focused on changes of the heart, rather than changes in circumstances. More on being made into the image of Christ, than on being made comfortable. (Ephesians 3:14-19) When your prayers start changing from only asking God to do or change something for you, to including more of asking God to do or change something in you, I think that is a good thing. The Family Prayer This simple phrase eventually evolved into a prayer for my family. My wife and I went through some really rough times at the end of 2014, and in the months that followed a prayer arose that I would pray often for me and my family.

Lord, give us a desire for your will,

and the grace within it to be still.

Knowing that in unknowns that be,

glory is given when we trust in Thee.

This prayer is very special to me. God gave it to me in some of the darkest days I’ve experienced so far in my life. Still today I say it to myself when things arise that I don’t understand, cannot comprehend, or that I don’t know what the outcome will be. Every word and phrase in this prayer is packed with meaning. A confession that I don’t naturally desire my Lord's will, and in my own strength I’m restless when things fall apart; and without God’s power in my life I am unable to be still and rest in His control. That I need Him to help me know, KNOW with certainty of mind and heart that He is holy and trustworthy and in control, to the point that His name is made great by the peace He gives me in the unknowns. While I love this prayer, and I think it is God honoring and I still pray it often, at times I found it replacing my requests to God to do something specific. There was still this unsettled fear in my heart that I did not want to come to God telling Him what I think He should do. Thankfully God is a gracious and patient God. He kept working on my heart till it finally clicked. Using a scripture I had read and heard several times God opened my eyes to this reality, that Christ prayed like this! The Model Oh the beautiful example of our Lord. Everything finally fell into place to remove the tinge of fear of bringing these specific requests to God by seeing that in His prayer in the garden, Christ brought His requests to God. He humbly made his pleas, and God denied them. Yet in that denial Christ submitted to the perfect will of the Father.

Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 

Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 

...he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.—Matthew 26:38-39, 42, 44

If Christ can go to God the Father in His moment of deepest anguish and cry out for God to do something to change His circumstance, and be sinless in that cry, I do not need this burden of tension in my heart in doing the same thing! Oh the freedom this brings! Oh to come to God with no fear, bringing my requests before Him and still saying, "your will be done, and I need your grace to walk in it.” Because the truth is, if He alters my circumstances to remove suffering, or if he keeps me while I walk through it longer, I will need His grace to glorify Him in either outcome. The key we see from Christ is confidence in His relationship with God, and also humility and faith in God’s will. Oh God cultivate our hearts more to that of Christ, and may we boldly come with our requests, and also humbly submit to Your will for us.

Truth Vs Opinion

...These words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children... Deuteronomy 6:6-7

A few nights ago after dinner an odd conversation came up. I cannot remember exactly how it did, as are many of the conversations around the table with a 4 and 6 year old, but the one for that particular night involved armpits.

Yes, armpits. But at least this one did not involve food going in them.

So joining in this intriguing discussion, I threw out a comment to my 6 year old son. I told him that arm pits are like opinions, everyone has at least two of them and they are all trying to make them smell better. He didn’t get it. But he did better than most adults do when they don't get something. He asked questions. On of which was, “What’s an opinion?"

That’s a good question to ask. I told him that an opinion is what you think about something and gave him a few examples. You think pizza tastes good. You think green is the best color. You think Batman is an awesome superhero. You think playing in the dirt is one of the best things ever.

As we talked a little light popped on. It’s the light that clicks on when there is a chance to teach something bigger. He was understanding what an opinion was, so I grabbed an apple and showed it to my son and we had this short conversation:

“What is this?"

“An apple."

“Right, and that is not an opinion, that is the truth. You can have an opinion about apples, that you like the way they taste or their color, but you cannot have an opinion on what it is. What if told you this is an orange. What would you say?"

“No, it’s an apple."

“But what if I believed it was an orange?"

“It’s still an apple."

“Right! What we believe about something does not change the truth. We can have different opinions about something that is true, but we cannot change what is true by our opinions."

And I left it at that for now, and hopefully in the future I can build on that and attach other truths to it.

I share this little story for two reasons. One is to show that even a child can understand this concept that our world has abandoned with its relativistic thinking.

The second is to encourage other dads. This conversation was not hard to have, you just have to look for them. If teaching your child about truth, God, or the gospel, is at the front of your mind then the light will click on when you're in a situation or when your kids say something you can use. Jump on it and use those moments to help teach your kids the things they need to hear most. As a dad, this is one of your most important and rewarding jobs.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.—Deuteronomy 6:4-9