This, then, is how you should pray.
—Matthew 6:9
Proper prayer does not demand that our will be done, but asks that God’s will be done.
It’s like the hook that an old salt uses to dock his boat. He doesn’t try to pull the dock to the boat, but the boat to the dock. In prayer, we are not trying to pull God down to us but to pull ourselves up to God.
It’s Jesus’ Gethsemane prayer: “Not as I will, but as you will.”
Elijah needled the prophets of Baal who were trying to get the attention of their god: “Shout louder . . . Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened” (1 Kgs 18:27).
God isn’t sleeping, and we don’t have to shout.
He delights in granting what is good for us, and won’t grant what is bad for us.
Don’t sign off until you’ve
whispered, “Your will be done.”