The Year Of Praying Dangerously

It’s a dangerous prayer. It could get you killed.

Jesus knew that. He prayed this dangerous prayer and was indeed killed for it. Hear his words from Matthew 26:39, “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.'”

The prayer of submission means we allow God to have his way in our lives. We find it in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Of course we often cruise through this prayer with little thought for what we are actually saying to the Father of the Universe. In order for his will to be done on earth as in heaven, we must submit our own will to his. This phrase in the Lord’s Prayer intends such submission, but do we?

Notice that Jesus did express his preference. He told the Father he would prefer not to go through with dying. Yet in the end, after much struggle in prayer, he submitted. He laid down his own will and took up the Father’s.

We are called to the same path. We can express our own preferences. We can even struggle in prayer over our own will. But in the end, we do well to make the same choice, the path of submission.

That may bring death for us. Or a new job we didn’t choose. A new place to live. But always remember that living outside of God’s will proves a fate worse than death.

I grew up in the rolling hills of bluegrass in Lexington, Kentucky, enjoying riding my horse in my leisure hours. Now I live in an urban neighborhood with a blacktop back yard. Though I often yearn for grass and horses, I’d rather live in the city and in God’s will, than bask in the grass without his approval. Some people have both, but I would not.

Sometimes it’s not the big picture, but the small details. We find ourselves in the middle of a difficult situation, and wonder how God could allow such a thing. Submitting requires trust. We must be convinced that God really knows what we need. Hear these words from Jeanne Guyon, written in Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ:

“You must utterly believe that the circumstances of your life, that is, every minute of your life, as well as the whole course of your life—anything, yes, everything, that happens—have all come to you by His will and by His permission. You must utterly believe that everything that has happened to you is from God and is exactly what you need.”

Such acceptance proves difficult. We tend to kick against the pricks, to believe that somehow we weren’t supposed to be sick, or insulted, or unemployed. Of course we must steer a careful middle course. God is not the author of evil. Yet he does draw lines around our lives of what he allows to happen. Regardless of what we may think, he knows best what we can handle and what will create our character in the shape that he intends.

Guyon goes on to talk of God as an artist and us as his canvas. If the canvas is unsteady, the picture will be blurred. Guyon says, “Every movement of the self produces error.” Our job is to be still and let God paint. “Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Try living dangerously.

Kathy Callahan-Howell is pastor of Winton Community Free Methodist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. She will lead a workshop at the National Pastors Convention in San Diego, February 26-March 1, 2003.

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