Praying As We Were Taught

Today’s message was written by guest pastor, Rev. Tasha Blackburn.

Several years ago, when my nephew was trying to learn the Lord’s Prayer, the family would say it together each night before dinner. For a time he would pray, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. My kingdom come, my will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…”

I understand how he could make the mistake! I know I have often prayed that God’s will would be done but, in my heart, I want my own will to hold sway. That was on my mind just about the time when I heard the announcement of one of that year’s Nobel Peace Prize winners. 

With the Lord’s Prayer on my mind, what grabbed my heart was an interview with the young girl. Her name was Malala Yousafzai and you will remember her. She was the girl who was shot in the head because she was attempting to go to school in Pakistan. She now lives in England and has used her voice to empower all of those voiceless children in her country. In the interview, she talked about when she was even young and small for her age. She said this, “Once I had asked God for one or two extra inches in height, but instead he made me as tall as the sky, so high that I could not measure myself.” 

 Wow.

 We need to stop praying for our will to be done and start meaning it when we pray for God’s will to be done! If we followed our own will we might pray to grow an inch or two but God’s will would have us reach the skies. It never would have been Malala’s will because she could not have fathomed it. And the same is true for you and for me. We pray, “Thy will be done” because our own will does not have enough imagination to dream what God can do with us and through us. Today, pray that God’s amazing will might be done in your life. Only God knows where it will lead.

 Prayer: God of heaven and earth, of all things that have been and that will ever be, today I pray that Your will would be done in my life. I pray that Your will would be done in the lives of those I love and pray for. I pray that Your will would be done in this world. Not my will, God, but yours. Amen.