“Will you pray for my mom? She’s having surgery on Tuesday.”
People recognize when we are compulsive pray-ers and give us their prayer lists. My prayers are often filled with concern for friends, neighbors, my town, my state, my country, and others far away who are suffering. The focus tends to be on their circumstances—physical, financial, emotional, relational, and spiritual. Sometimes, such prayers can become our efforts to be others’ saviors by begging Jesus to do our will.
One time, the Lord challenged me for thinking He was indifferent to the suffering I had begged Him to end. He presented me with a vision of endless rolling hills of the greenest grass I’d ever seen. I could see daisies growing in clusters here or there. Jesus invited me to look closer, and I saw that these hills were vast. But the daisies were actually fat, fluffy white sheep grazing in peace. He wanted to teach me that He has all His children lovingly in His hands, and they are well-tended. Trust Him. That was the spiritual reality I was missing.
Paul admonishes us to exult, rejoice, and even boast in the hope of God’s glory. And he wrote this in the context of tribulation. Not the hope of our glory or our friends’ glory, but the hope of God’s glory. What a different mindset this offers.
Satan wanted glory for himself and coaxed Eve to pursue the same goal. But what would happen if, when we pray, we have in our hearts a deep love of God and the desire to bless Him and see Him glorified? That was Jesus’ heart. He prayed that the Father would be glorified through the Son.
As you pray, seek God’s glory, not yours. This is a wonderfully practical way to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength.
Kim Robinson is a former schoolteacher who has taught in rural and central Oregon, Alaska, and with Mercy Ships in Africa. She currently lives in Salem, Oregon, where she is delighted to serve the Lord as a mom, grandma, writer, copy editor, and encourager of others.