Though we are limited beings with little knowledge, we are proud beings with little humility. When Jesus taught us to pray, he taught us to bring our petitions before the Lord, to bring to him all our cares, all our burdens, all our sorrows. We can and should plead our case before the Lord, for Jesus tells us, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:I1).
Yet we need to do so humbly acknowledging that God may have purposes in mind that he has not yet made clear to us. And so when we pray and when we bring our requests to the Lord, we say, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). In these words we acknowledge what God has made clear. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).
We humbly, willingly submit to the choices of the God who is working all things for our good and his glory. In the words of Moody, we “Spread out our petitions before God, and then say, ‘Thy will, not mine, be done.’” We will come to see what he learned: “The sweetest lesson I have learned in God’s school is to let the Lord choose for me.”
