Three Benefits of Surrendered Prayer

I desire to always pray with the surrendered, hands-off abandon like this prayer that changed my life: “Increase my faith, Lord. And do whatever it takes.”

I agree with the psalmist who said of God, “You are good and what you do is good” (Psalm 119:68).

Yet, I sometimes live with tension between what I perceive as good, and the good God might choose for me.

Jesus models how to pray with complete trust in God’s choice.

When the time drew near for Him to go to the cross. He prayed, “Father, glorify your name” (John 12:28).

During His night of prayer in Gethsemane, Jesus yielded to God’s plan to bring salvation to the world.  He declared, “Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).

He chose God’s good over His comfort. He chose God’s glory over His relief.

O. Hallesby wrote in his book, Prayer:

“To pray is to let Jesus glorify His name in the midst of our need.”

What happens when it’s God’s glory we crave? When we want only what He wills, when He wills it?

We experience His unlimited resources

Praying human solutions limit us to human resources. When we rest in God’s chosen outcome, the resources of the universe await His command.

We can trust Him to bring about an answer only He can achieve. And He receives glory as a result.

We enjoy His greater good

We only see our circumstances from flawed perspective. What seems good in the moment might bring disastrous results in the long term.

When we pray for God’s solution, He prepares people, arranges events, and calls on resources to bring about the answer we would have chosen if we knew what to ask.

He alone sees how our circumstances fit into the big picture of His purposes.

We experience deeper intimacy

Emptying ourselves of desire to get our own way brings enrichment, satisfying us beyond imagination. When He receives glory, He gifts us with Himself in greater ways.

When we trust God with our circumstances, we encounter a steadying peace only He can bring. We experience greater awe in how He will choose to move in our lives in the future.

Do these benefits empty us from suffering and disappointment?

No.

But we can depend on Him to invade our trouble with His mercy and goodness. We can count on Him to deliver us from problems or give us grace to persevere through them.

As God helps us in our struggles, He gets the glory. And we get the benefit.

When His glory becomes our chief desire, His choice become our greatest outcome.

 I’d love to hear your thoughts.