Written by Dawn Rutan
I woke up rather early this morning, and since returning to sleep seemed unlikely, I was praying about various things. After a while I found myself using phrases that I don’t normally use because they seem too risky. It is far easier to pray safe, benign prayers. Here is part of my prayer:
Lord, Creator, Sustainer… You raise up kingdoms and nations and You bring them down. You raise up those kingdoms that will glorify You, and You bring down those that don’t. And it’s not just the big kingdoms, but all the smaller “kingdoms” of our denominations, churches, homes, workplaces, hobbies… We build our own Towers of Babel for our own glory and satisfaction. But anything that doesn’t glorify You is an idol that must be torn down. Do what You desire with these things. We don’t want to stand in Your way. We don’t want to hold on to programs or traditions or habits or even the praise of man. While we don’t like to see the end of anything that appears good or beneficial, we want Your will more. It is Your name, Your kingdom, and Your will that matter, not ours.
I repeat, this is not my usual way of praying, and I’m sure I’m not alone. It almost seems crazy to give God free rein to do what He wants, but then again, He is God and is going to do so anyway. Surely it is better to admit to ourselves and to Him that we don’t know what is best, that we have mixed motives, and that we are not the ones in control of this world or our own lives. If we truly thought about the words of the Lord’s Prayer and its implications, we might be more reluctant to pray it frequently. It is no comfortable prayer.
Another risky prayer I encountered this week was Psalm 51. “Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean… Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (7, 10 ESV). If we’re honest, do we really want God to take away our bad habits, favorite sins, and wrong desires? There have certainly been periods of my life when all I really wanted from God was for Him to remove my guilt but not the desire to sin. “Clean up the outside, but leave my heart alone.” C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity:
“I think that many of us, when Christ has enabled us to overcome one or two sins that were an obvious nuisance, are inclined to feel that we are now good enough. He has done all we wanted Him to do, and we should be obliged if He would now leave us alone… But this is the fatal mistake. Of course we never wanted, and never asked, to be made into the sort of creatures He is going to make us into. But the question is not what we intended ourselves to be, but what He intended us to be when He made us” (174-75).
It gets a little dangerous and uncomfortable when you start praying the words of Scripture. It is easy to pray “bless them,” “be with them,” “protect them,” but those phrases are almost meaningless in the way we tend to use them. Do we dare to pray things like:
- With my whole heart I seek You; let me not wander from Your commandments! –Psalm 119:10
- Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in Your ways. –Psalm 119:36-37
- Reprove and discipline me according to Your love. –Revelation 3:19
- Show Your greatness and Your holiness and make Yourself known. –Ezekiel 38:23
- Lord, look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your word with boldness. –Acts 4:29
- We pray to God that you may not do wrong… Your restoration is what we pray for. –2 Corinthians 13:7, 9
- Open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to the power of God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith. –Acts 26:18
If we want to see God at work in our lives and in the lives of those we love, let’s stop praying comfortable prayers. I yearn for God to be glorified in my life through the visible evidence of His grace and mercy in justification and sanctification. I don’t want to settle for comfortable Christianity.
“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” -2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
© 2017 Dawn Rutan. The views stated may or may not reflect the beliefs of the pastor or leadership of Dulin’s Grove Church.
