prayer.

I have some questions I was introduced to today that I would like to share with you:

1.Do you pray to get from God or to get God?

2.Do you pray to move God or for God to move you?

3.Do you pray to get out of pain or through it?

4.Do you courageously punctuate your prayers with "Your will be done"?

5.Do you pray in faith knowing God is not the author of sin but is the author over sin?

6.Do you ask your friends to pray for you even if you know they will fail to do so?

7.Do you pray to both hear and accept God's will for your life?

8.Do you accept that God will answer your prayers with, "yes, no, or later"?

In the Gethsemane prayer (Matthew 26 : 36-46) Jesus prays with requests to God, but also acknowledging that God's will be done. He prays that the cup that he is about to bare be removed from him and finishes with, "Yet not as I will, but as you will." He also asks his friends to pray for him twice, in which both times they fell asleep. Jesus prays, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done." Jesus accepted that God said no to his requests of the cup being taken from him. By accepting that His Father's will be done, he was changed and instead of praying to get away from his death, he endured his death and remained close with God up until his death.

I'm not sure what is going on in some of your lives but, if you are a Christian you are not excused from hard, hard things. Too often I find myself praying to ask God to take, "this cup" away from me, yet I do not punctuate my prayer with, "Your will be done." I punctuate it with, "God do this for me." We will face difficult things in our lives, real things; death, sin, etc. Jesus did, he faced real things; betrayal, temptation, death. We are not excused from it. But, we don't have to be alone through it.

Please pray for me as I ask God for direction in my life and that I would not let lies into my head!