Digging Deeper: The Battle of Wills

When most of us think about prayer, we probably think about asking God for something. We pray for our families, our jobs, our relationships, our finances, our health, our future, and a hundred other things. There is nothing wrong with asking God for those things. In fact, Jesus tells us to ask. But what if there is something happening in prayer that is even more important than getting the thing we asked for? What if one of the primary purposes of prayer is to change what we want? In this passage, Jesus reminds us that God is a good Father. He knows what His children need, He cares about His children, and He gives good gifts to His children. In fact, Jesus ends the thought by saying, “How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” That sounds simple, but it completely changes how we should approach prayer.

If God is actually a good Father, then prayer doesn’t have to be about convincing Him to care about the things we care about. He already cares. We don’t have to manipulate Him into giving us good things. We don’t have to find the perfect words or say enough prayers to finally get His attention. We come to Him because He is our Father. And when we spend time with our Father, something begins to happen… our hearts begin to change. When we pray, we come to God with our limited perspective. We see what is happening right now. We know what we want right now. We know what we think would make things better right now. But God sees the entire picture. He knows what we don’t know. He understands what we don’t understand. He sees where our desires will lead us.

So prayer becomes more than asking God to bend His will toward ours. It becomes an opportunity for God to bend our will toward His. This is why Jesus gives us such a powerful example in the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s will to be done. That means prayer isn’t just, “God, here’s what I want You to do.” It’s also, “God, help me want what You want.” That can be uncomfortable because sometimes God’s will is different from ours. We may pray, “God, give me this job,” while God is teaching us to trust Him when we don’t get it. We may pray, “God, fix this relationship,” while God is asking us to forgive someone. We may pray, “God, make my life easier,” while God is using a difficult season to make us more dependent on Him. We may pray, “God, give me what I want,” while God is slowly showing us that what we want isn’t actually what we need.

And that is where prayer becomes transformative. Instead of prayer simply changing our circumstances, prayer begins changing us. The more time we spend talking to God, listening to His Word, and bringing our desires before Him, the more we begin to recognize that some of the things we desperately wanted weren’t actually good for us. We begin to care about things we didn’t care about before. We begin to see people differently. We become more concerned with God’s glory than our comfort. We become more willing to forgive, serve, sacrifice, and obey. Prayer doesn’t always change what is happening around us. Sometimes it changes the person experiencing what is happening. That’s why we shouldn’t measure the effectiveness of our prayer life only by whether we got what we asked for. Sometimes God answers our prayer by changing the situation. Sometimes He answers by changing us in the situation. And if we’re honest, changing us may be the greater miracle.

Think about the things you are currently praying for. Now ask yourself a different question. Not just, “God, will You give me this?” but, “God, what do You want to teach me through this?” Not just, “God, will You change this person?” but, “God, what do You want to change in me?” Not just, “God, when will You fix this?” but, “God, how can I become more like Jesus while I wait?” Those questions begin to change our prayers. We still ask boldly. We still bring our desires to God. We still believe He can do things we cannot do. But we hold our desires with open hands, trusting that our Father knows what is best.

Prayer is not us trying to get God on our side. Prayer is us learning to get on His side. And maybe that is one of the greatest gifts prayer gives us. We come into prayer thinking we need God to change our circumstances, but we leave realizing that we need God to change our hearts. We come telling God what we want, and over time, He teaches us to want what He wants. So keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking. Bring your biggest prayers and your smallest prayers to your Father. But as you pray, don’t only ask God to change the things around you. Ask Him to change you. Because the ultimate goal of prayer isn’t simply getting God to do our will. It’s allowing God to shape our hearts until His will becomes what we want, too.