His Will Be Done...Not My Own.

Welcome to Crossroads Napoleon's blog,“Finding God In Napoleon”. This blog is dedicated to sharing thoughts on being in a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ from day to day.

---

Recently, I was in Gaylord Michigan with the staff of Crossroads Church. This small staff retreat provides a chance for staff members to bond and to refocus on their respected ministries. Both of the Crossroad staff retreats that I have been apart of have offered a time of refreshment, and refocus on the ministries that I have been entrusted with. This year we focused on prayer, and how we can improve our own prayer lives.

Now, I am afraid that I have to confess something. Pretend for a minute that I'm in a confessional booth and you, as the reader, are the priest. I confess that my prayer life is terrible! I pray somewhat often, but in the most shallow capacity. More often than not, I am praying for what I want, for how I want a situation to unfold, for a person to do what I think is right, and for myself to prosper.

Now the bible does tell us to pray expectantly;

Matthew 7:7-8
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

However, this is under the presumption that we are earnestly seeking God. Praying for our own betterment is not earnestly seeking the heart of God. We should follow the model that Jesus lays out
in Matthew 6:9-13

“This then is how you should pray, ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

Jesus, the son of God, doesn't even pray “...your kindgdom come, MY will be done...”, but I think we all have been guilty of praying that before. We need to shed this and we need to pray earnestly to the King asking that His will be done, in spite of our own.

Just this weekend, I learned of a practical way to improve my own prayer life. I will be using this to make sure that I am not praying out of selfishness. Its called the ACTS model, which is an acronym for;

A dulation (meaning “to praise”)

C onfession

T hanksgiving

S upplication (to pray for others)

This is a great model for our prayer. But however you decide to pray, be sure that you are praying for His will, and not your own.