What makes prayer worthwhile? For years, I was under the wrong assumption that faith and sincerity were the ones that made praying worth the effort since they brought in results. It turned out I was faithfully and sincerely wrong.
Prayer has very little to do with our words, our faith, and even our desires. Prayer is not our ticket to more favour from God. Praying more, praying harder, and praying with the right words will not make our prayer more effective. The question we must all ask first is this: "Am I praying according to the will of God?"
In Matthew 6:9-10, Jesus teaches the foundational material that builds up effective prayer: "Pray then like this: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.'"
Those two first requests are what will heavily determine not just the output of our prayers but the input of our hearts.
When we pray that God's kingdom come, what we are really saying is that we want to see His lordship over our lives. If God's kingdom comes, we make Him king. Master. Boss. The big shot. It's not about us and what we want—more money, more gadgets, more convenience—most especially if it gets in the way between you and God's will. It's first and foremost about God's will and purpose happening.
And then there's praying "your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." In heaven, everything perfectly aligns to the ways and will of God. Nothing goes against God and nothing even considers any other way because in heaven it's obvious that God's way is what brings every good and perfect thing.
1 John 5:14 reminds us, "And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us."
God hears us out, no doubt. But what really gets God's attention is when we're on the same page as He—when we're on the same wavelength.
We're not on the losing end if God had His way with us. We're actually in better hands when we leave our day, our finances, our career, our entire life to the will and purposes of God. When we work according to His purpose, it's only natural that His provisions will follow. It's actually when we pray in our will that we get into the most trouble, the most mess and the most complications because we don't have God's eyes to see how things will all work out. But God makes all things work together for our good (Romans 8:28).
God's purposes are what we should be seeking for. We will never regret doing things God's way because His way is always good, pleasing and perfect. According to whose will are you praying today—God's or yours?
