Prayer is . . .

Today’s reading from Matthew 6 is a discussion on the second verse of the Lord’s model prayer: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

The writer of my devotional guide says that prayer has a three-sided nature. When we pray, there is “someone prayed to, someone prayed for, and someone prayed against.”

As I read it, I’m convicted that I sometimes get those roles mixed up.

As the prayer says, I’m praying to “Our Father in heaven,” yet I’ve been in prayer groups where my prayers sounded more like I was telling the others all about my request instead of simply taking it to the Lord—who knows more about it than I do and needs no long explanation. That isn’t what praying is about.

As for what I pray for, most of my requests involve the needs of people. These needs come to my attention and I take them to the Lord, often with all sorts of suggestions as to what He should do about them. In other words, I’m telling God how to run the universe.

Jesus’ model prayer doesn’t do that. These words from verse 10 are an expression of surrender to His will, asking Him to do what He wants done, not telling Him what I want or think He should do. I may assume that I am not opposed to Him. I may assume that I am yielded to His decisions and choices, even that I am willing to accept “no” or “wait” as an answer. Yet how can that be so, if I find myself telling God what to do? That isn’t what prayer is about either.

In that same vein, I often catch myself praying fervently for something that is clearly His will, something that He wants more than I do—as if to persuade Him to action. I believe God has the power to do anything, but sometimes my prayers sound like He is resisting and I am trying to talk Him into doing something.

When I pray, I have to remember that I am not persuading God, nor is He is my genie in a bottle. Instead, I am partnering with Him against all evil influences that stand opposed to His will. The devil comes to mind, but it is not always the devil; sometimes people have built up strongholds of resistance to God. It that case, I’m to pray that those strongholds are brought down and every thought brought into obedience to Christ.

Yet the resistance that most often stands opposed to Him is not the devil or others, but me—me—even as I talk to Him. When I say, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done” then I better mean it first for myself.