The following meditation was written by Dr. Thomas K. Tewell, retired pastor and founder of Macedonian Ministry Foundation.
If you had to spell the word PRAYER from your own experience, how would you spell it?
Some people spell prayer P-R-E-S-E-N-C-E, because they see prayer as a doorway into the presence of God. Others spell prayer R-E-L-A-T-I-O-N-S-H-I-P because they see prayer as a way of cultivating a dynamic relationship with the living God. There is not one right way to spell prayer!
But I spell prayer Y-I-E-L-D-I-N-G, because I see prayer as relinquishing my will to the greater will of God. I came to this understanding of prayer when, in my study of the New Testament, I learned that the only thing that Jesus’s disciples ever asked him to teach them was, “Lord, teach us how to pray.” After spending three years of their lives with him, the disciples did not ask Jesus to teach them to heal the sick, or to perform a miracle, or to use everyday stories to teach Godly truths. They did not ask him to teach them how to overcome fear. But the one thing they asked him to teach them was. “Lord, teach us how to pray!”
The disciples believed that prayer was Jesus’s power source. He prayed before he invited the disciples to follow him, and he prayed before he raised Lazarus from the dead. He prayed at all the major moments in his life . . . and he prayed early in the morning as the Gospels say, “was his custom.” After being with him for three years, the disciples realized that prayer was his lifeline and the anchor for his soul.
And the disciples remembered that in the Garden of Gethsemane outside Jerusalem, on the last night of his earthly life, he fervently prayed this prayer, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not what I want, but what you want.”.[1] When Jesus asked God that he might be spared from the cross, he added but not my will but thine be done! Jesus yielded his personal will to God’s greater will. This is why I spell prayer Y-I-E-L-D-I-N-G. This is the essence of prayer. It is submitting my will to God for daily guidance so that I am open to focusing on God’s will and not simply my own desires.
This is why my daily prayer posture is that of open hands. Years ago, when I was praying intensely for something, I looked down. I saw that my hands were clenched in two fists. I felt God saying to me, “ Tewell . . . you are not open to me and my will. You are preventing me from giving you what I want to give you because you have closed your hands. You are not open to receiving my gifts. God had to pry open my hands over time, and I started to open my hands so that God could take things out of my hands that are blocking me from God . . . and God can put into my hands anything that God wants to give me. This prayer posture of open hands is a game changer!
When I open my hands to God, I start to see life from God’s wider perspective. As author Madeleine L’Engle wrote, “people have a point of view. God has view!”[2] From God’s wider perspective, I start to see that God has a bigger agenda for my life and the lives of others than I imagined. So, my job as a disciple of Jesus is to get my will in line with God’s greater will, and my limited agenda in tune with God’s wider agenda. This, as I see it, is the purpose of prayer. It is what I mean by Y-I-E-L-D-I-N-G to God! As this well-known quote, attributed to preacher Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie, pointed out, “the purpose of prayer is not to change God’s mind but to receive God’s mind.”
When we pray in the name of Jesus, we are asking Jesus to “sign his name to our prayer.” If there is anything in that prayer that is not in tune with God’s will, then we are asking Jesus to correct our thinking so that we are in tune with the greater will of God. This is an important part of Y-I-E-L-D-I-N-G to God’s greater will. Prayer is a mystery. God doesn’t answer prayer on our timetable or in accordance with our desires. Prayer is not something that is easily figured out. God has purposes for events and experiences in our lives that are greater than we can imagine. This is why we must constantly Y-I-E-L-D to God!
Prayer is a mystery. It is a reminder that God’s ways are bigger than our ways. Some years ago, a single parent in a congregation I served as pastor was struggling to make ends meet. His dream, and his ardent prayer, was to buy his son a bicycle at Christmastime. The man hoped that he would receive an end-of-the-year bonus from his company that would allow him to splurge on the bike that his son desperately wanted. About a month before Christmas, the single Dad was riding alone in an elevator in the office building when his boss got on. My friend asked his boss how the end of the year was looking and if he thought there might be an end-of-year bonus that year. Although the boss said that he could not promise anything, the firm was in the process of closing a big deal that would be finalized in a week. It might make the bonus the biggest that the company ever had! Wow! My friend, the single Dad, was ecstatic!
In his enthusiasm, the Dad went to the store that night to look for a boy’s bicycle for his son. As he entered the store, a group was outside collecting money for a local homeless ministry. The church I served also had a ministry to the homeless, so my friend gave a little extra to the homeless ministry. He filled out a card with his name, address, and phone number on it so the homeless ministry could thank him for his gift. Then he entered the store to shop for a bicycle, but he could not find one that he liked or could afford.
It was fortunate that he couldn’t find a bicycle that night. Several days later the boss announced that the contract had fallen through and . . . Alas . . . there would be no year-end bonus. That meant no bicycle for his son. My friend was crushed. He tried to think of any possible way to get a bicycle for his son that Christmas . . . but it seemed that there was no way!
On December 20, he got a phone call from that Homeless Ministry to which he donated money, indicating that he had won a raffle. My friend said that he never entered a raffle. But the Director of the Homeless Ministry corrected him and said that when he gave that contribution and signed a form, he had unknowingly entered a raffle . . . and he won a prize! When he asked the Director of the Homeless Ministry almost as a throwaway question . . . ” What is my prize?” the Director replied, “Your prize is a boy or a girl’s bicycle.”
God didn’t answer my friend’s prayer in a way that he would have expected! Prayer is a mystery! I don’t understand how prayer works . . . but I do understand this. That God loves us more than we can imagine. And that is why God doesn’t want any of us to miss the relationship and the presence of God that God offers us in prayer. So that is why in my own prayer life I am daily Y-I-E-L-D-I-N-G to God’s greater will . . . because I know that our God has more in store for us than we can ever imagine. And I don’t want anyone to miss knowing this God . . . the God revealed in Jesus Christ! Do you?
Joy,
[1] Matthew 26:39
[2] L’Engle, Madeleine. “CT Classic: Madeleine L’Engle on Allegory and Prayer.” Interview by Cheryl Forbes. Christianity Today, September 7, 2007. https://www.christianitytoday.com/2007/09/madeleine-lengle-allegory-prayer-wrinkle-time/
Nurture Faith with Dr. Doug Hood 