Will Alignment

Greg Laurie Daily Devotional

Monday, September 10, 2007

The Right Way to Pray

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
—John 15:7

When it comes to prayer, people sometimes mistakenly think they can first come up with a plan and then get God to do what they want Him to do. They think that if they really pester God through prayer, He will finally cave in.

Others would teach that if we have enough faith, we can speak something into existence. We can just say it, and it will be ours.

Of course, both concepts are false. The fact of the matter is that prayer is not for the purpose of moving God your way. It is for moving you God’s way.

Do you want to know the key to answered prayer? Then line yourself up with the will of God and start praying for what God wants you to have.

Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). A literal translation of this verse would read, “If you maintain a living communion with Me, and My Word is at home in you, you can ask at once for yourself whatever your heart desires and it will be yours.”

When we hear this verse, we immediately gravitate toward the part about asking whatever our heart desires. But here is what it comes down to. If you are maintaining a living communion with God, and His words are at home with you, then your prayers will change. You won’t be praying for self-indulgent things. Instead, you will be praying for the things God wants you to have.

This is what prayer is really all about. It is about getting our will into alignment with the will of God.