Abandoned to God

Prayer is an admission that there is someone greater than myself - someone who may be able to help.

But much depends on how I approach God.  Do I approach him cautiously, holding myself back?  Do I trust that he has my good at heart?  Am I willing to accept his answer, no matter what?  Do I want what he wants?  Do I really believe he is in control of all things?

The answers to those questions are important.  If I feel that God is not in control, my prayers are likely to be desperate and worried.  Perhaps there will be unspoken criticism of God for not giving me what I think I deserve.  Perhaps the winds of doubt will sweep through my heart.

If I believe that God is in control and that he is working for my good, my prayers are likely to change.  I may not get the answers I want when I want them; but, I will be at peace that God knows best and will show me in eternity why he answered the way he did.

I confess that I still wrestle with these thoughts from time to time.  But I am deeply convinced that God is in control and that he is working things out for my good.

Jeanne Guyon, a great French pray-er and writer from the late 1600s, has been one of my most delightful guides in my prayer journey.  She has helped me see that I need to "abandon" myself to God.

She wrote a book called A Method of Prayer which led to her being thrown into jail for many years.  It was later translated into several languages influencing great Christians through the centuries.

In a recent English translation called Experiencing God through Prayer, she writes:

"You must give up both the external and the internal things - all of your concerns must be placed into the hands of God.  Forget yourself.  Think only of him.  In doing so, your heart will remain free and at peace."

She goes on to say:  "It is essential to continually submit your will to God's will and renounce every private inclination as soon as it arises - no matter how good it appears.  You must want all that God has willed from all eternity.  Forget the past.  Devote the present to God.  Be satisfied with the present moment which brings God's eternal order to you."

The Psalmist Asaph pours out his heart to God in Psalm 73, clearly feeling that God has let him down.  Bad people are prospering.  But then he goes before God and his outlook changes.  He takes the long view.

"You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny," writes Asaph.  "Whom have in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth."

That's the way God wants me to look at things.  That's the way he wants me to pray.