From a very young age I was taught to pray. I prayed out of gratitude, to thank the Lord for his goodness and providence and I also prayed to ask for whatever need I had. The bible itself teaches us to pray, it encourages us to ask and promises us that whatever we ask for in prayer shall be given unto us. I was thankful and consoled by this, while I was growing up, I'd practice all sorts of prayer briefly and deeply every time I was thankful or had a need. However, things got a little confusing in my adulthood. I remember specifically praying and asking God to grant me a better job so I can leave the toxic workplace I was in at the time, I never got the better job, I had to stay in that toxic environment for a whole six years and even developed more mental health issues. This was where I started wondering and asking myself a lot of questions about the trustworthiness of prayer even though I usually felt guilty about it because I didn’t want to seem rebellious. I began to doubt and lose faith in asking God for anything even though I still loved him. I had questions and I couldn’t shake them off, what was the point of praying if the prayer won’t be answered? Is the bible lying when it says whatever we ask for in prayer will be given to us? Why do we even pray? Is prayer a hoax?
On my quest for answers this is what I’ve come to realize or what God has taught me ‘Prayer is not a means for us to get what we want from God but a means to keep us closer to him.’ The sooner we understand this the better. We often get disappointed at God, sometimes we feel so let down that we even leave the faith, all because we fail to understand this one thing that Prayer is a means to keep us in God. Now this is not to say we shouldn’t ask, but it is just a reminder of where we should stand when we are asking. Jesus himself understood this, at the garden of Gethsemane he asked for God to remove the cup of suffering but then he surrendered to God’s will. This is the part most of us miss, surrendering to God’s will. We often focus on the first part (asking) which always gives us this false hope that we will get whatever we ask for, but the truth is that we won’t always get what we ask for, his will be done. Jesus taught his disciples the same thing when he was teaching them to pray, Daniel’s friends understood this when they were thrown in the furnace of fire. There are so many more examples in the bible. We are free to ask as long as we do not forget to surrender to his will.
If we can understand this one thing we will never go wrong. We may still be sad when we don’t get that job we’ve been praying for, when that sick loved one we’ve been praying for passes away etc.… but we won’t be disappointed at God, we won’t be so mad at God that we even leave the faith. We will always be comforted by knowing that we prayed for his will to be done. This is what God made me understand, that he doesn’t do things for us because we asked, he doesn’t take care of us because we asked, he doesn’t provide because we asked, he does all these things because he wants to (his will), because he is our God and he made us. This is why Jesus pointed us to the birds of heaven and lilies when he was asking us not to worry, birds and lilies don’t ask but he still takes care of them, he still takes care of our brothers and sisters who are not even believers while they don’t ask. Prayer is not a means for us to get what we want, God will still grant our desires whether we ask or not, his providence is not dependent on our prayers but on his will. Prayer is just a tool that he uses to draw us closer to him, to keep us hopeful, to keep our hearts seeking after him. Is prayer a hoax? Not at all, it is merely a means to keep us near the cross. The next time you ask and do not receive remember these words, ‘His will be done, not yours.’