By: Steve Leland
First off, let me apologize to anyone who has allergic reactions to sermons. I feel you; if it smells like a sermon it probably is…even if that is not my intention.
Prayer has become an art form. Those who can wax long and eloquent are very intimidating to those of us with faltering lips and a stammering tongue. They have seemed to me to exemplify the epitome of spirituality.
So it was with great interest I realized that of all the words written that were uttered by Yeshua, we have very few prayers, and the one that was given to us as a specific example was quite short.
This prayer was recorded for us in Mathew and repeated in Luke. It dovetails nicely with the prayer that he prayed shortly before he was arrested.
What stood out to me was the phrase “Thy will be done” in both prayers. In fact, in the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed three times, using slightly different words, that Yah’s will, not his own, be done.
After much consideration, I’ve made this a principle part of my own prayers, having decided that no matter what my request may be, I would rather have what furthers the Kingdom of Heaven than my own desires and plans. I’ve come to realize that it is the heat of the fires that we go through that gives our iron the temper necessary to be a tool fit for Yah’s hand. If we were to be able to pray our way out of every hot spot that we got into, where would we expect our strength to come from?
May we be forged in our fires and not shrink from them. May we see each fire as an opportunity to become fit for His Kingdom. May we pray as Yeshua did: “…nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
Depending on how you interpret it, part of Yeshua’s prayer in John 17:15 may reflect the concept that we aren’t to be preserved from problems. “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”
It is hard to watch friends and family go through hard stuff. We want to protect them and have Yah relieve them. Sometimes He does, but not as often as we would like. Instead, we are asked to bear one another’s burdens. Which, interestingly enough, is a subject for another day.
By: Steve Leland
