Pray in Submission to God’s Will

Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. Luke 21:36, NKJV.

Pray often to your heavenly Father. The oftener you engage in prayer, the closer your soul will be drawn into a sacred nearness to God. The Holy Spirit will make intercession for the sincere petitioner with groanings which cannot be uttered, and the heart will be softened and subdued by the love of God. The clouds and shadows which Satan casts about the soul will be dispelled by the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and the chambers of mind and heart will be illuminated by the light of Heaven.

But be not discouraged if your prayers do not seem to obtain an immediate answer. The Lord sees that prayer is often mixed with earthliness. People pray for that which will gratify their selfish desires, and the Lord does not fulfill their requests in the way which they expect. He takes them through tests and trials, He brings them through humiliations, until they see more clearly what their necessities are. He does not give to His children those things which will gratify a debased appetite, and which will prove an injury to human agents, and make them a dishonor to God. He does not give men and women that which will gratify their ambition, and work simply for self-exaltation. When we come to God, we must be submissive and contrite of heart, subordinating everything to His sacred will.

In the garden of Gethsemane, Christ prayed to His Father, saying, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” The cup which He prayed should be removed from Him, that looked so bitter to His soul, was the cup of separation from God in consequence of the sin of the world. He who was perfectly innocent and unblamable became as one guilty before God, in order that the guilty might be pardoned and stand as innocent before God. When He was assured that the world could be saved in no other way than through the sacrifice of Himself, He said, “Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.” The spirit of submission that Christ manifested in offering up His prayer before God is the spirit that is acceptable to God. Let the soul feel its need, its helplessness, its nothingness, let all its energies be called forth in an earnest desire for help, and help will come.—The Review and Herald, November 19, 1895.