"Prayer Is Surrender"

Does it trouble you by some of the prayer requests that are made? I had an individual ask me to pray for them they might get this new home they were looking at. People ask for others to pray for them often but one thing we need to be aware of in our prayers: MOTIVES DETERMINE EVERYTHING FROM THE LORD'S VIEW! To pray for selfish things for our own personal wants or pleasures will not even be entertained by God. "You ask and do not received, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend in on your personal pleasures." (Jam. 4:3)

Prayer is surrender. All one has to do is look at Jesus. Jesus was in agony, even to the point of death before He faces His trial (Luke 22:44). We face troubles in our lives but have never faced what Jesus faced. It troubled Jesus to His soul (John 12:27). When He met with His Father in prayer, He fell on His face (Matt. 26:39). Luke said He knelt down (Luke 22:41). People take this to speak of our posture in prayer but it wasn't the posture of Jesus that was being discussed. Posture is not prayer. Christ humbled Himself, surrendering Himself in prayer. How many times have you heard people pray for humility? Humility is an attitude of our heart. We humble ourselves before the Lord. The Lord doesn't give us humility! Prayer is self-emptying, abandonment of us and a complete relinquishment. That's what we see in Jesus. Don't we hear that from Jesus in Luke 18 about the Pharisee and tax collector? The self righteous Pharisee thanked God that he was not like other men. The tax collector was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven. Jesus went on the teach that the humble will be exalted before God.

Prayer is surrender. Conversion is surrender. Our relationship to God is about a heart that humbles itself before God and completely surrenders itself in the presence of God. Prayer is all about placing ourselves under God and petition Him because we trust.