What do you ask God for when you pray? Are you asking in accordance with his will? Are all your requests for yourself, your family, or people you know? Do you ask for things? Do you ask for a better job? Do your prayers only consist of requests?
Praying is a very important part of building our relationship with God. Spending time in conversation with God is as important as conversing with a good friend. We need that time, and he wants that time. The more time we spend with him, the closer we draw to him.
We have likely been told that we need to thank God as well, and that is true. But let’s focus on our requests today. There is nothing wrong with asking for our needs. However, we need to take time to discern the difference between our needs and our wants. We can even ask for our wants, but need to ensure we ask God to reveal his will. Is it his will to give us what we want? He may have something much better in mind for us. Or he may be stopping us from going down a path we shouldn’t go down by denying us our want.
Asking to make us a better person is certainly within his will. Asking him to continue to change us into the person he wants us to be is pleasing to God. Seeking to have our spirit in sync with his Spirit is pleasing to him. As we read today’s passage, we may start singing the hymn Create in Me a Clean Heart. Singing that hymn as a prayer is pleasing God. As our hearts are made clean and our spirit becomes synchronized with his Spirit, God is pleased, and our lives become far better than they otherwise would be.
I pray we all pray within God’s will. I pray we ask for those things that are pleasing to God. I pray each one of us seeks to have a clean heart and our spirits to be in sync with the Holy Spirit. Pray in God’s will. Ask for things that are pleasing to God. Seek a clean heart. Seek to be in sync with the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Marty Pressey 