1 John 5:14-15 (NIV) “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.”
Read the above scripture a few times and reflect on what it means. If you are like me the light bulb will go off in your head and pretty quickly you will figure out the key to having prayer answered.
Prayer and answer to prayer is pretty simple. If we ask according to God’s will, he hears us and if he hears us we will get what we ask for which is an answer to our prayer via God’s will. The key is to pray “Thy will” not “my will” be done and mean it. And then once we pray it, we need to be ready to accept the answer which means we need to relinquish control which is not always easy. The phrase “let go and let God” is a popular phrase around the recovery community because most of us are/were selfish, self-centered, control freaks. Don’t think for a minute that only addicts and alcoholics suffer from control issues, us addicts simply know a life run on self will creates a “riot” in our life as well as the lives of the people surrounding us and this behavior will eventually lead us back to our drug of choice (please substitute drug with whatever your bad habit is).
As a person in recovery I understand my recovery is contingent upon my spiritual condition and my spiritual condition is contingent upon my willingness to let go and let God.
Many years ago my AA sponsor taught me to always pray for the knowledge of God’s will for me and the power to carry it out. In other words I ask God to help me know His will for me and then I ask him for the power to carry it out. If you do this enough times eventually you begin doing the things you know you need to do, whether you want to do them or not. Â
My favorite prayer which is the ultimate prayer for a desired life run by God’s will was written by Saint Francis Assisi:
“Lord, make me a channel of thy peace–that where there is hatred, I may bring love–that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness–that where there is discord, I may bring harmony–that where there is error, I may bring truth–that where there is doubt, I may bring faith–that where there is despair, I may bring hope–that where there are shadows, I may bring light–that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted–to understand, thatn to be understood–to love, than to be loved. For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen.”
Or the abbreviated version of this prayer….“God give me the strength to do everything that my flesh doesn’t want to do.”
Try praying this prayer (long or short version) for 90 days and see if you don’t slowly begin relinquishing control and doing things the way God wants you to do them…it works if you work it.
P.E.A.C.E.
