The Prayer Channel
The blog home of the internet radio prayer meeting heard Wednesday nights at 10pm central time

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” – Matthew 6:9-10 (ESV)

We’ve all heard “The Lord’s Prayer” and there are many churches that include the congregation repeating it as part of their weekly services. The question I’ve often wondered is how many believers actually know what they’re praying and want that to be true in their lives? It’s a prayer about surrendering everything to the Lord and trusting that He will provide what we need in our lives rather than what we want in our lives.

Many Christians I know have a prayer life that consists of going to God and making requests about the things they want to have happen in their lives. A lot of the time the prayers fall into the same general theme…prayers for friends and family, prayers for our wants and now & then a prayer for our church. It’s rare that someone prays for the Lord’s will to be done in their lives no matter what that will may be and then truly desire to have that! It’s as if people pray for that with the thought in the back of their minds that they only want God’s will if it lines up with the desires they have for themselves.

I think a lot of this comes from the fact many Christians have a hard time truly letting themselves trust in God. We all have free will and unfortunately that free will can make it very easy to say we trust without actually taking that within our hearts and minds. We want to trust but when it comes to crunch time we take it on our shoulders to try and make things happen. Most of the time, these “crunch times” are not within God’s will but rather something we want or the result of our trying to chase down something we want rather than what God wants for us. It leads to stress, anxiety, financial troubles, marital troubles and other burdens which further cloud our relationship with God.

In your next scheduled quiet/prayer time, instead of praying in your usual manner try taking the step of saying the Lord’s Prayer, mean it and then just sit and listen for God. Spend the time in front of Him without throwing out every request, every desire, every petition. God will be there to help you see His will and put your heart in tune with Him. Then you’ll start praying for the desires He puts within your heart and you’ll see God doing powerful things through your life.