True prayer does not first seek to change God’s will, but to transform the human heart.
We often come before the Lord asking for an answer, deliverance, or a blessing. God hears our petitions, yet He works more deeply than we ask. While we ask Him to change our circumstances, He begins by changing the person passing through them.
Prayer is not an escape from life, but an encounter with the One who gives life its meaning. In God’s light, fear begins to become trust, anger becomes gentleness, and anxiety becomes peace. Sometimes the situation remains the same, but the one who prays is no longer the same.
Do not measure prayer by the sweetness you feel. Some prayers are filled with consolation, while others are dry and sustained only by faith. If you remain steadfast through both, your love for God is gradually purified from the desire for personal comfort.
Pray not only that God may give you what you desire, but that He may make you into the person He desires you to become. This is the prayer that never remains fruitless, for it opens the heart to the work of grace.
“Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)
