Thy will be done. Matthew 6:10
One of the basics of God-focused praying is found once again in the model prayer: surrendering our personal desires and agendas to the Lord in exchange for our Father’s plan and purpose (see Matt. 6:10). Jesus teaches us to pray that the Father’s will would be executed on Earth as it is in heaven. What an incredible thought that the precise will of God can be realized upon the earth!
The redeemed have the privilege of cooperating with the Godhead in implementing His agenda through prayer. This is a mystery. Some Christians downplay this privilege, instead embracing fatalism, a faith-stripping doctrine that robs scores of believers of the incentive to pray, or theological determinism, which holds to the notion that everything that happens is the will of God and that what will be will be. But holding fast to these ideologies while ignoring the balancing scriptures destroys faith and expectancy in prayer. The recorded prayers and promises throughout the Bible bear witness to God aligning Himself with the prayerful utterances of His church as they aligned themselves with His will.
The will of God is not automatic; if it was, there would be no need for us to intercede for its accomplishment. Prayer is not passive resignation or capitulation to the inevitable. The eternal God has an objective, and He invites His followers to partner with Him in the administration of His designs. One of the goals in prayer is to implement God’s will on Earth. For this to happen, God allows us to enter into His desires. He gives us prayer burdens. As our wills unite with His, we pray the things in God’s heart into existence. Prayer is an essential component in the outworking of God’s will. In order to partner with God in prayer, we must surrender our wills to God’s—the surrender protocol.
Jesus prayed, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). Pondering the “cup” of His Father’s fierce wrath against fallen man’s sin deeply troubled Jesus’ heart. So painfully profound was the anticipation of bearing man’s sin that Jesus prayed in anguish. His burden was so great that He may have literally hemorrhaged blood: “His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). When the sinless Savior anticipated drinking the divine wrath for all mankind, He first had to come to grips with the agony of the cross. But Jesus died to His will in Gethsemane before His body died on Calvary.
When we pray, we are not asking God to alter reality to adapt to our felt needs. God-focused prayer puts the priority on God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will. Prayer is not about getting our will done in heaven but about God’s will being fulfilled on Earth. In order for that to happen, we must surrender our rights. The Lord confronted Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. In that blazing light Jesus arrested Saul’s attention when He asked, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Saul was “trembling and astonished.” He replied with a prayer of surrender: “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:4–6). Saul, who became the apostle Paul, began his spiritual journey with a prayer of surrender. He submitted himself fully to God’s direction.
In order to pray, we must first hoist the white flag of surrender to Christ’s lordship. This precedes asking for provision (daily bread), pardon (forgiveness of sin), and protection (deliverance from evil). Petitions and supplications are vital parts of prayer, but our concerns must follow after prayerful concerns for God’s name, kingdom, and will. Therefore we must surrender our hurt, pain, worry, doubt, fear, and anxiety, asking our Father to wash us clean. Self must be lost in the vision of God in order for effective prayer to take place. To say yes to God, we must first say no to self.
When the mechanic aligns the tires on an automobile, he does not align the frame to the tires; he aligns the tires to the frame. In the same way, prayer does not align God to us; it aligns us to God. Self-will, self-seeking, self-sufficiency, and self-glory must be renounced. Prayer is about God’s will. Elisabeth Elliot wrote, “The will of God is not something you add to your life. It’s a course you choose. You either line yourself up with the Son of God . . . or you capitulate to the principle which governs the rest of the world.”
Dying to our wills in order to embrace God’s will can be difficult at first. When a cabinetmaker wants to join two pieces of wood together, he applies glue and then clamps the separate pieces together. Once the glue sets, the pressure from the clamps is no longer needed. In the Christian life the Lord often applies pressure in our lives until our wills are cemented to His. Once we are lined up with Him, the tension is often lessened. We can grow in our union with God to the point at which we are at home in His will. Surrender seems radical at the outset, but it becomes a way of life. Growth in grace is the product of a yielded life.
Surrendering to the will of God is not a one-time act. It should become a way of life. As I once heard said, “Let me live so that if somebody wrote my life story, it would be more about God than about me.” This is the essence of a surrendered life.
God’s subjective will is something we must learn to discern as we yield to Him and seek His leading. On the objective side, however, God’s will is clearly revealed in God’s Word. The phrase “will of God” is found twenty-three times in the Bible. God’s will, for example, is that we be morally pure (see 1 Thess. 4:3), that we give thanks (see 1 Thess. 5:18), that we live Spirit-filled lives (see Eph. 5:17–18), and that all men should come to repentance (see 2 Pet. 3:9).
All heaven’s assets for implementing God’s will on Earth are at our disposal. The surrender protocol is the doorway for realizing and praying for God’s purposes in the world.
Reflection
- When we pray, we are not asking God to alter reality to adapt to our felt needs. God-focused prayer puts the priority on God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will. Prayer is not about getting our will done in heaven but about God’s will being fulfilled on Earth.
- Jesus died to His will in Gethsemane, before His body ceased to live on Calvary’s cross.
- The redeemed have the privilege of cooperating with the Godhead in implementing His agenda through prayer.
- Surrendering to the will of God is not a one-time act. It can and should become a way of life.
Application
- Do you need to hoist the white flag of surrender to the Lord? Confess any hurt, pain, worry, doubt, fear, and anxiety you have as sin. Then renounce it in Jesus’ name. Ask your Father to wash you clean in Jesus’ blood.
- In what areas do you need to say yes to God and no to self?
- Are you walking in obedience to the revealed will of God? If you are praying with others, is everyone in your group (your church) walking in compliance with Christ’s commands? Individually or corporately take action to ensure that your repentance is up to date.
- As you walk in the fullness of the Spirit, God will share His burden with you. Then you can partner with God by implementing His will on Earth through prayer.
This chapter is taken from “Approaching God’s Throne: Biblical Protocols For Prayer.”
