When You Pray, Give God Your Life - September 26, 2013

Matthew 6:10
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus says when we pray, we should commit ourselves to God's will. After I give God my love, I give Him my life.

Notice the Lord's Prayer says, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Did you know God has a specific will for your life? Part of connecting with God is saying, "God, what is your will for me today? I want to do your will."

In heaven, God's will is done perfectly. The problem on earth is God's will is not always done. That's why we're to pray, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We're saying, "God, I want to submit to You. I want to do what You want me to do." True success in life is knowing the will of God and getting right in the center of it.

You can pray "Your will be done" in three different ways. 1) You can say it in resentment: "Your will be done, but I don't like it." 2) You can say it in resignation: "Your will be done, because I can't help it." 3) Or you can say it in anticipation: "Your will be done, because I know it is the best and that's what I want for my life today!"

When I was a kid, we watched a popular TV show entitled, "Father Knows Best." Your earthly father may not always know what's best, but your Heavenly Father does.

This is a heavy one. And this week's devos are about praying...

There's three different kinds/meanings to the phrase "your will be done". The devo said that it can be either resentful, resigned or eager. God is asking us to leave everything to him, and we do so when we say "your will be done" whenever we pray and say the Lord's Prayer. What should be behind our "your will be done"s? Most of the time, it should be a willing attitude to let God into our lives so that he may work in us and perhaps through us, as praise team members, touch others.

Saying "your will be done" shouldn't be taken lightly, because we are saying that we will submit ourselves to God and his will, whatever that may be.

After all, Father knows best!

Prayer sometimes seems so pathetic to me. Let me explain, it's not that I think God is not there or he's incapable or anything. I just get so frustrated with my own weakness and sin which makes it hard to believe my prayers are sincere. For example, at retreats I always pray for God to really change my life and help me live completely for him. I pray that I will have a fire in my heart and a passion for spreading the gospel without fear. Then I come home and go back to my normal life with minimal- if any, changes. Prayer should be real. It shouldn't be like "oh Lord change me" and then go home making no effort to change.

Today's devotion is somewhat under the topic: surrender.
I've never actually dissected the full meaning in this part of the Lord's Prayer: "your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We are basically saying that we want and will let God take over and have us carry out his will for eternity. We want to spend the rest of our life here on earth, and the life after that.
I don't think I've ever thought about my life with him after I leave this world. We learned to prepare ourselves and finish the job we have on earth. That was my mentality; to finish what god has planned then after spend time enjoying heaven. But what comes after the journey we finish on earth?
I personally, don't have the answer, but its been lingering in my head for a while so I jut wanted to let that out to maybe make you guys think about this too.

~Audrey~

Is it me or are the titles somewhat misleading and/or confusing?

If we aren't going to do anything after we pray, there shouldn't be a reason to pray.
I think the main purpose to pray is to initially connect with God. And once we do so, there'll be a time where we will be challenged to put our faith to the test. Basically God asking us, "How much do you love me." As we pray, we should remind ourselves for what is to come, especially if we want to progress further in our faith. If we ask for a stronger will against temptation, or even to the smallest things, like getting a great mark in school, there'll be a time and place where we'll be put to the test. How would you be willing to study? How well can you fight off that earthly desire that you commit? It'll come sooner or later, whether we like it or not, depending on what we desire. Also, our goals and standards really truly reflect who we are, how much we want it and how well we want to do it.

I think this devo is really similar to yesterdays about how we should all mean what were saying. For example, if we pray that we want to get closer to God or to make him change our lives, we ourselves have to first put an effort to change. We can pray all we want to God asking him to change us, but if we don't commit to our own prayers, it will never happen.
While were on the the topic of prayer, prayer is something really special. Firstly, its a way of communication with God. We may not feel like He is listening to us but he is. dont worry about it. And it may seem like God is not answering your prayers, but trust me God answers your prayers eventually. Each prayer gets answered differently and you must be patient. Some prayers, God may answer quick, but others may take years. I remember prayers i made a couple of years ago being answered in the past year or so.
Secondly, prayer should be done while your focusing on God. So i guess what im trying to say is that you should try to pray when your least distracted. Its not wrong to pray when your distracted, but i just feel that you get more of a connection when your not distracted. For example, i always pray before i sleep, i just find that when im lying in bed my mind is clear because all the distractions have been dealt with.
YEP have a good night guys

I think this devo is really similar to yesterdays about how we should all mean what were saying. For example, if we pray that we want to get closer to God or to make him change our lives, we ourselves have to first put an effort to change. We can pray all we want to God asking him to change us, but if we don't commit to our own prayers, it will never happen.
While were on the the topic of prayer, prayer is something really special. Firstly, its a way of communication with God. We may not feel like He is listening to us but he is. dont worry about it. And it may seem like God is not answering your prayers, but trust me God answers your prayers eventually. Each prayer gets answered differently and you must be patient. Some prayers, God may answer quick, but others may take years. I remember prayers i made a couple of years ago being answered in the past year or so.
Secondly, prayer should be done while your focusing on God. So i guess what im trying to say is that you should try to pray when your least distracted. Its not wrong to pray when your distracted, but i just feel that you get more of a connection when your not distracted. For example, i always pray before i sleep, i just find that when im lying in bed my mind is clear because all the distractions have been dealt with.
YEP have a good night guys

What I got from this devo is that when we pray, we need to offer ourselves to God.
"...your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
We aren't giving permission to God to do what He wants generally in the world, we are offering our lives so that His will may be done through us.

We can ask God to show us what He wants us to do in our lives, but when He shows us, we shouldn't run away from it because it seems scary or it's out of where we are comfortable. Prayer is the first step, but we also need to follow through with what God says.
Really, what's the point in saying asking God to work in our lives if we don't let Him work in our lives?

Let's have real prayers, mean what we say to God, and be prepared to follow through with it.

God's will is something that has been existing for an insurmountable amount of years. God knew, knows and will know what He's doing, and it was cultivated with a lot in thought. We sometimes think we know better or that we are in control, therefore we don't have to depend on God and His will. However if you think about it, it's God who sets and rises the Sun, it's God who determines the the placement of every single star in the night sky, it's God who knew us since before the beginning of time, it's God who so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. We think we know everything, or we know better but in the big picture we really don't know much.
Even though we might not initially like the will God has set for us, we have to trust in Him that it's for the better, or much better than we ourselves could have made it to be. I think this mainly all goes back to the topic of surrender and trusting in God, through everything we do in our lives. I think when we pray, "your will be done", we're ultimately giving God control of our lives, surrendering and trusting in Him. We shouldn't have expectations for what God may do in our lives, but we can expect that He knows what's best for us.
Always.


16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16