Wrestling in Prayer

As you can see on the right column, I’ve been taking a survey on my blog asking people which phase of the Lord’s Prayer they consider the most meaningful. The #1 choice so far is: Your kingdom come, your will be done…

Perhaps this is because as we wrestle with this phrase we often find ourselves struggling to put our priorities in the right place. So often in prayer, we want our castle, not God’s kingdom; our agenda, not His cause; our choice, not His will.

I believe so many of our seemingly unanswered prayers really are answered … they are just answered with the word, Grow. God wants to teach us to embrace His kingdom purposes for our lives.

Simone Weil said, “Isn’t the greatest possible disaster, when you are wrestling with God, not to be beaten?” Learn to ask the question, “Where do you want me to grow?”

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For fun, I’ve written a version of the Lord’s Prayer that sounds a lot more like I am sometimes tempted to pray:

My Butler, who is in heaven,
Hallowed by my plans.
My kingdom come,
My will be done,
On earth as it is in my mind.
Give me today enough surplus for a year (and here’s my list);
forgive me if I left something out.
And do all this in a way that I won’t experience anything uncomfortable;
for my little kingdom, forever and ever, amen.