Prayer is God Control Me, Not I Control God.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;

knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)

“Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42)

Painting of Olive Tree

A parable is told of two men who planted olive trees in their fields. Afterward the one prayed, “Dear Lord, my trees need water. Please send rain.” The showers came!

He then petitioned. “They need sunshine.” And God bathed them with sunlight!

Later he cried, “Father, my trees need something to make them hardy. Please send a frost tonight.” It came but killed them all.

Travelling over the other man’s groove, he found his olive trees flourishing.
“How can this be?” he asked. The reply came,

“When I prayed, I didn’t ask for rain, sunshine, or frost; I just said, ‘Lord, you made these trees. You know what they need. Just send what is best!’”

Let me tell you what are the false assumptions and true principles of prayer in this parable. Firstly, it is false assumption that God always answered every prayer exactly as we wants, but it’s true that God answered prayer. Secondly, it is false assumption that we can control and ‘use’ God for our own self-centered desires, but it’s true that God may use the events in our lives to make us realized that He is in control – not us. Thirdly, it is false assumption that we shouldn’t pray specifically about our needs, but it true that we need to know what our needs are and trust God to answer it all according to His will.   

In their book Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby and Claude King writes, “Prayer is designed more to adjust you to God than to adjust God to you. God does not need your prayers, but He wants you to pray. You need to pray because of what God wants to do in and through your life during your praying.” Charles L. Allen further explained: “Prayer is not a means by which I seek to control God; it is means of putting myself in a position where God can control me.” Amen.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.