Surrendered Prayer

Sunday afternoon, December 2, 2007
This is what John said about prayer: “And this is the confidence which we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him” (1 John 5:14-15; NASB).
In the first place, I do not think John meant for the likes of you and me to get bogged down in dissecting this passage and miss what he is telling us about prayer; even so and at the risk of becoming bogged-down, I do want to point a few obvious things: (1) I do not understand most of what he is saying, and that should be obvious, at least to those who know me; (2) I do, however, understand some of what he is saying, not the least of which is this: If we ask God for something He wants us to have, He will give it to us; (3) I also understand that he is telling us that our “asking” is important (not so much for God but for us); however, I must be careful here because I would not want to lead you to believe that God will only give us that for which we ask (think about how much He has given to you without your asking!); (4) Furthermore, I also understand that our having to ask confirms and declares our dependence and our helplessness; it forces us to deal with our pride (the boastful pride of life), not to mention that it also forces us to admit that we are not God; (5) I also am very aware that he is NOT telling us that God will give us whatever we want, and for this I am very thankful (if He had given me everything I have wanted, or thought I wanted, I would be in one huge mess—one bigger than the one I am already in); (6) I also understand that John is attempting to show us that most of our praying is centered on our attempting to talk God into giving us what we want, without even considering that our desires might be (probably are!) diametrically opposed to what He deems best for us; (7) To be honest, this is somewhat “fuzzy” to me: “. . . If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him” (vs. 14). I do understand that this could, simply, mean that He will always give us what He wants us to have (whatever is according to His will for us), especially if we ask Him for it, and if this is true, then the key to effective praying is knowing His will for us and asking Him for that and only that. I wonder, however, if this line does not have more to do with the manner in which we ask, than it has to do with our knowing what is will for us might be. If this is true, then we should be focused on knowing HOW to ask, rather than on what He might desire for us. Take a minute to read the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane—the place of crushing—and listen, carefully, to how He presents His request to His Father. Obviously, this “place of crushing” had worked its work in His life, and He was, therefore, before His Father, as a child—scared and frightened out of His wits. While sweating drops of blood, He cried, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; however, not My will but Thine be done” (you can look it up for yourself).
My point: Jesus had come to that place that I am choosing to call “The Place of Surrendered Prayer”; He had come to that place, where He was finished trying to change His Father’s mind about what was in front of Him; He was ready for God’s will to be done—regardless. Now notice this: Jesus’ coming to this place of Surrendered Prayer did not cause God to back down and change the next several days for Jesus—not one bit—instead, it equipped Jesus for what was in front of Him.
Ask from that place of Surrendered Prayer—no longer attempting to manipulate God, just surrendered to His will for your life. It will be tough getting there—I promise!