Our Prayers Reflect Our Priorities

We may have heard the expression, "Be careful what you pray for, because you just might get it." I am realizing that I need to be careful what I pray for because it will reflect where my priorites and passions lie. Upon examining my prayers lately, I am realizing that I am prizing my life and comfort more than God's praise. For instance, I may pray that my life's challenges would be eased or erased altogther, rather than praying that my life's challenges would result in other people praising God. In essence, my prayers are more about me and what God can do for me rather than praying that my life's struggles would be used for God's fame.

As I talked about complaining last Sunday, I was struck by Moses' lack of complaining and how his prayers reflected a passion for God which took priority over himself. In the book of Numbers, chapter 14, verse 11, God is asking Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me...?" God goes on to say that he will destroy these people but continue to elevate and reward Moses. Now I don't know about you, but if I were Moses, dealing with these people who constantly complained about me, falsely accused me and wanted to kill me, upon hearing God's decree to destroy them and still take care of me, I would have responded by saying "It's about time! I was wondering how long you were going to put up with them. I have had it with them!"

However, Moses' prayer reflected Moses' priority. Moses' prayer in response to God's decree showed that Moses' priority was God's glory. Moses pleads with God to not destroy the people. But Moses' motivation was not to save the people. Moses' motivation was to protect the fame of God's name among other nations. Moses responds to God by essentially saying, "Well if you wipe out these people, what will that do for your name's sake?" Moses was asserting to God that other nations would hear how God wiped out his own people and those other nations would draw wrong conclusions about God. Moses' prayer reflected that his priority and passion was God's glory. Moses could have gone along with God's plan which would have made Moses' own life much, much easier. However, Moses was not interested in a life of ease, he was interested in a life that would bring God glory, even if it meant his own life were to be marked by pain and suffering.

As I look at my own prayers to God, I realize I pray more for a life of ease than for a life that brings God glory. Is God's glory my top priority? Jesus said it so well and so succinctly when confronted with going to the cross and the temptation to avoid His own slaughter for our sin. Jesus simply and so profoundly prayed, "Not my will be done, but Thy will be done." By the grace of God, may will all recalibrate our prayers so that they reflect a greater priority than ourselves. In our prayer lives, rather than praying for better days, rather than praying for an improved phase, rather than praying for better days, may we simply pray for God's praise.

Beams Away!