Our great God and Heavenly Father,
Forgive me, because my prayers are too often only selfish attempts to get what I want from you. I come, list in hand and little else. I justify this kind of prayer because you tell us in your word to ask, seek and knock.
My misconception of your true character robs you of your Sovereign Majesty and glory, an idolatry that is most evident in the way I pray. How dare I treat you, the Lord of the Universe, as if you were my delivery-boy: unconscious of you most of the time, summoning you when I need something, and dispatching you without so much as a “thank you.” Forgive me, Jesus, for treating you with less respect than the guards who mocked you, struck you, spit in your face, and then crucified you.
Forgive me for not praying in faith but rather out of a heart that is filled with superstition. For in truth, I believe prayer’s power lies in me or in another or even in prayer itself.
I have often gone to pastor, priest or saint, because they are “special”; they most certainly are able to get your ear, for you wouldn’t hear me. But it is my ears that are deaf to your voice calling me to come. And do not I betray you by believing that I need another mediator than the one you provide? What man could be more righteous than you Christ, and whose prayers would accomplish more? Is there any other who is continually interceding for me? I am faithless for not believing in your promises to come boldly into your presence because the way is made possible by the blood of your Son. What could you value more Father, than the blood of your Son?
I have ignored your instructions when I pray because I sound like a pagan, endless babbling and rants, trusting in my many words or getting the form right. My prayers have been long, elegant and emotional all to impress, to get your attention and win your approval; if not from you then at least from others. Sometimes I shout hoping that you will hear and answer me. If nothing else I hope that I am convincing myself and I call it faith.
Teach me again to pray as you taught your disciples to pray - so differently than I pray. For your prayer O Lord, is short, only eloquent in its simplicity, and straightforward.
Forgive me, for my prayers question your goodness and love by denying the very words my lips are confessing when I call you “My Heavenly Father.” How my prayers must break your heart because I don’t know you nor do I trust your word. Why do I not rest on your promises that guarantee with the giving up of your own Son that you will with him freely give me all things? Why do I call the bread you give me a stone and the fish a snake? If I being evil know how to give good gifts, how much more should I have confidence in you, Father.
But Lord, some days I feel like I can really pray and you hear me because I have been good or done something for you. Doesn’t that place you in my debt? Forgive me for making Christ’s death meaningless by valuing my pitiful acts as more significant than Jesus’ life and death. Why do I, Lord, desire to cover the perfect righteousness of Christ with my own filthy rags?
Father, dare I say, your sovereign rule offends me! How can you? How can you force your will on all creation, especially your children? What offends me is not the power, but that it is yours and not mine. Of course I never would admit that this is the reason I question your sovereignty. I prefer to look thoughtful and reflective, to be philosophical but if the truth were known, you hold all power, glory and all authority- and I want it. Have mercy on me Lord, for I still long for what my first parents coveted. For not being satisfied with bearing your image, I long to take your place. But this is not something you have denied me. In Christ you call me to join you, to reign with him. But Lord, Christ has chosen another direction than the one my heart is telling me; He in his glory steps down, to serve and to suffer but I want neither! Teach me Father to be like Christ and to desire a cross, that humiliation comes before exaltation, and that the glory of the resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering cannot be separated.
If I cannot have your place, then at least I can blame you for the deadness in my soul that is evident in the absence of prayer. After all Father, why should I pray if you already know and have already decided? Forgive me Lord, again like my first parents, I have believed Lucifer’s lie, the one he planted in our souls to doubt your goodness and love. Teach me to see you rightly Lord, that in all your attributes you are sovereign and your sovereignty fills all your qualities of wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Knowing you this way allows me to pray joyfully, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Don’t let me hide my lack of love for others and my disobedient heart behind theological speculation that would leave you responsible for my sin. Show me how your plan and my actions fit together, how your will and my freedom merge so that they are one. Help me understand that your election does not exempt me from praying for the lost, sharing the gospel and pleading with people to be reconciled to you, but because of your sovereign plan I can be outrageously bold, confident, and at the same time patient when calling others to Christ.
Instruct me Father in what the older saints knew, that your sovereignty was the reason to pray, and to pray prayers filled with blessing, thanksgiving and praise. Make me understand you the way the Psalmist did, who being convinced of your sovereignty, argued and plead his case before you using your own promises as his evidence. Or to say with Job, “behold he will slay me, I have no hope, even so, I will plead my case before him.”
Reveal your majesty to me like you did to Isaiah, that in seeing you, I will see the true folly of my sin and being cleansed by a baptism of fire can then, from a cleansed heart offer myself in service to you.
Move my heart like you moved the apostle Paul’s, that as he laid out your plan of redemption for the church in Ephesus he was caught up in blessing and glorifying you, so much so that he could not take a breath for almost an entire chapter.
Let me rest in the mystery of your election, knowing that I am but clay in your hands, that you harden the heart of whom you please, love whom you please, pass over some, cut off nations and graft in others. Behold, your kindness and severity. Until like your apostle I can pray,
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
Make me to know the promises I look to and hope in, “that nothing can ever separate me from the love of God in Christ, that I am more than a conquerer,” can only comfort me if these promises are grounded in your sovereignty, “that you work out all things for the good of those who love you.” And resting in your plan, keep me Lord, from murmuring against you, manipulating and scheming to get my way.
Help me to see life like Joseph, who when he had a chance to take revenge on his brothers for their betrayal, saw himself not as the victim of their evil act but understood that his life fit into your much greater plan. And when I do not get my way or what I want, help to me see that it is not others who are obstacles, but you My Shepherd are leading me in the paths of righteous.
In the face of disaster, teach me to pray prayers that trust in your plan and Providence, wherever you lead me in life and whatever circumstances I might face. Because of your dominion, may I greet all things as gracious gifts from my Father in whom there are no shadows. Your sovereign mercy enables me to give thanks in all things so that your peace that passes all understanding will guard my heart and mind. Even in the most difficult events help me to pray a prayer of rejoicing and hope like Habakkuk prayed:
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.
And when overwhelmed, Spirit, search my heart and mind giving expression to the cries of my heart with groanings too deep for words, bearing witness with my spirit that I am still your child and these cries are acts of faith that long for your kingdom to come.
Don’t let me be like Jabez Lord, who prayed for you to bless him and you graciously answered his prayer, but we are not told of any good Jabez did for you.
Most of all Lord, teach me to trust in your sovereign mercy the way Christ did. For trusting in your sovereign plan he could pray both, “Take this cup from me but not my will be done but Thine, Oh Lord.” Then give me the grace to like my Savior, who when persecuted for righteousness sake was able to say, “Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do.”
For it is only then Lord, that I will have learned to pray in faith, realizing that you have taken the list from my hands, and in my prayers you have mingled my desires with your will so that I have received something far greater than I could have hoped, thought or imagined. You will have given me what my heart truly desires and all that I need. You, Father.
For in trying to get what I want out of you by my prayers, you have gotten what you want out of me. For I have taken my eyes off my list and see only you and in that moment, I know why the Psalmist asked for just one thing, and sought just one thing, and that I like him pray, “may I dwell in your house Lord all the days of my life, to behold your beauty, and to meditate on you in your temple.”
Questions for Further Thought or Discussion:
Why pray if God is sovereign?
Examine how you pray, what do your words show about your understanding of the nature of God?
How would understanding the sovereignty of God affect both our prayers content and purpose?
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