Intermezzo - praying God's will

I must admit I'm having a hard time putting words around my wrestlings with how to pray for the Israel/Lebanese situation. I believe there are aspects of prayer life in the realm of "unsolvable" world events that are worth ruminating on. But in case anybody out there is waiting for something intelligible (well - good luck if you're looking for that here!) on the subject, it may take another few days. The situation involves human lives, and to deal with it in a crass way, just to hear myself speak, would be grossly insensitive.

I want to offer up a little thought about "praying God's will". There was a great classic prayer posted on Scot McKnight's site last Sunday. Surprisingly, instead of the few innocuous "thank yous" and "this was very beautiful" responses typical for a prayer posting, it also received a harsh criticism: who are we to ask God to change [His will] just because we ask? And isn't it stating the "bleeding obvious" anyway?

Though there was overt hostility in the question, it does beg an important point: how do we walk the fine line between begging and cajoling God for our petty needs, and praying His will? And furthermore, why bother praying His will if it'll be done anyway?

You can of course read the entire discussion, but I wish to present something I wrote on the discussion. Not that I believe I've said anything markedly profound, or that "you should listen to me", but I intend to use these thoughts again in discussing prayer for the Middle East:

This is a beautiful prayer. Indeed, it may be restating that which is patently true, but as Scot points out, our forgetful natures need the regular reminder of who God is.

There are at least two other important benefits as we pray God’s will, a practice instructed in 1 John 5:14. First, our will becomes more aligned with the will of the father. It is a fact of our nature that we become ever more like that which our eyes behold (thus, Philippians 4:8). As we pray for God’s multipled mercy, we ourselves become more merciful; when we pray for his loving forgiveness for ourselves and our brothers, we can barely help becoming more forgiving and becoming agents to spread His forgiveness. Our sin nature tends to strip us of this benefit quickly, so repeatedly focusing on God’s will is so important.

The second benefit, stressed in 1 Jn 5:14, is that He hears our prayer and answers. As we become more attuned to His will, we will find Him pressing us to pray for both general and specific things, and we are blessed to see His answer! Do we bend His will in so doing? By no means! Indeed the answer had been on its way before we had yet prayed (see Matthew 6:8 - and Ephesians 2:10) - and we are simply blessed to see it unfold. What we need, and what we are to do for Him, have been prepared in advance for us. To enjoy this relationship and to see God’s loving hand as we pray is little short of a daily miracle.