Offering Prayers - The One Year At His Feet Devotional
Offering Prayers
Read: Matthew 6:9-13
“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:10
“God does nothing on earth except in answer to believing prayer.”
—John Wesley
IN WORD When we pray, we are often quite focused on our own preferences. We want God to act on our behalf and to accomplish what concerns us, as His Word has promised He will do. Jesus nowhere condemns this type of prayer, contrary to some pseudobiblical teaching. He is intensely interested in our concerns, and He encourages us to ask what we will. But there is a better way, and a prior focus that must precede all such prayers. It is a preoccupation with His kingdom and the glory of His name. It is a greater appreciation for His will than for our own.
God is the owner of this world, but He created it with mankind as its stewards. His verbal contract with earth’s managers stipulates that generally He will intervene not arbitrarily, but when asked. In His sovereignty, He has often limited His earthward actions to depend on the invitation of man. Even when He required an Intercessor, He came Himself in the form of a man. It is His modus operandi in this world.
Therefore, when we pray, we must understand our requests to be the medium through which He acts. First and foremost, our prayers are the holy offerings by which He moves. We must ask not only, “Will You accomplish this for me,” but, “Take my prayer and use it as You wish.” Our requests are His treasured currency, not simply our pleas.
IN DEED Prayer is not so much an act of persuasion as it is a gift for Him, a rolling out of the red carpet for God to intervene in the world He created and owns. Our requests are the vehicles by which the Landlord may politely—and without violating His original agreement—step in to help us property managers.
Do you ask with a spirit of offering? Do you see your prayers as gifts to Him that He may use as He wills? Try praying with this mind, and watch Him meet you there.
