He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.” - Matthew 26:39
Our son Peter was trying out for the basketball team and asked me to pray that he would make it.
“I’ll ask that the right thing will happen for you,” I told him.
Pete shot me a somewhat apprehensive glance. “Don’t do that, Mom,” he pleaded. “Just pray that I make the team!”
How often do I pray like that! So often I don’t want the right thing to happen; I just want to make the team. I can remember praying “Pete prayers” when I was very young. “O God,” I would say, “I want a pretty day on Saturday,” or “Please help me to pass the examination without having to do any studying!” Children make such elementary requests. But when we become adults, we are supposed to put away childish things (1 Corinthians 13:11). God intends us to learn how to praise him for Saturday’s rain and to ask him for help as we do our homework.
Peter grew up to play basketball for his college. Once when he was trying hard to qualify for a place, he again said, “Pray for me, Mom.”
“What for, Pete?” I asked.
“Pray I will make the team only if I’m the best man for the job,” he said quietly. Pete has come a long way.
Have I? Have you? Prayer after all is the means by which we sense God’s desires, and they become our own. We might even begin to care more about the team than we care about the team’s caring for us!
For Further Study: Matthew 26:31-56
Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Women, Copyright ©2000 by Jill Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
For more from Jill Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.
SPECIAL OFFER
