prayer wars

Recently, I was involved in an awesome prayer event. There were lots of people participating and it was very exciting. We had a great prayer, thanking God for His blessings, asking Him to help us as individuals and to bless our respective areas of ministry.

The farther we got into the prayer, the more I realized how confused God must get. We were asking Him for different things, actually competing things. I was also glad to remember that God has a will and that, no matter what we do or say, He usually gets His way.

It is funny how we assume that God agrees with us. If I want something bad enough or if we think it is spiritual sounding enough, God obviously also wants it! After the prayer event, I realized that I did not hear one person – out of a solid hour of prayer – ask for or submit our prayers to the will of God. And neither did I.

I think the next time we gather for prayer, I am going to suggest we pray one thing: “Not my will, but yours be done…” (Luke 22:42) Of course, that prayer got Jesus crucified.