Luke 9: 23 “And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself (disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself) and take up his cross daily and follow Me (cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also).”
What is God talking to you about when you pray? Not what are you talking to Him about, but what is He speaking with you about? What is the last thing God said to you when you went to Him in prayer? Are you communicating with Him to know without any question what He purposed for you? Do you know the eternal significance of it all? Are you finding that He is opening your understanding as He lets you know what is on His agenda? Are you staying in His presence long enough to allow Him to reveal His ways, His truths, His understanding and His agenda to you? Have you waited long enough in His presence in prayer to know what it will cost you to carry out the assignment?
Seeking and submitting to God’s agenda does not mean that we do not openly take our needs and requests to our father in heaven. We should never hesitate to bring our needs and requests to Him, but we have to learn to release our own agendas and with an honest heart pray “Not my will, but Your will be done.” We need to always approach God with a heart that wants nothing more than His will to be accomplished. And we must have the confidence that His purposes are so much larger than our requests or our perspective regarding any present need.
He is not interested in us disciplining ourselves to say our prayers; the Pharisees had prayer down to a science but they were absolutely useless to God. What He is looking for is a heart that is more and more responsive to His touch. Not for you to tell Him how devoted you are to Him by all of your religious activities, but for you to recognize that when you come before God in prayer, one touch from Him brings an immediate response from you, and the immediate results of your prayer will be obedience to His will.
When we learn what the Lord’s specific will is and receive His guidance for our next assignment, this does not mean that the next steps will be easy. Sometimes there is difficulty waiting around the corner. Do not get thrown off by the intensity of the struggle you might experience in your own prayer life. Remember how Jesus was determined to obey and honor the Father that night in Gethsemane and at the same time He felt the weight of the assignment and He brought His heavy heart to the Father. Do not be discouraged if your heart is sorrowful as you cry out to God in the assignment that He gives you. In this relationship with the Father who loves us and is in complete control of all things, there are times when we need to just present our heart and our thoughts to Him. Who better can we share the burdens of our heart than our heavenly Father?
Remember, there is a cost for submitting your life to the Father and taking up a cross and following Him (Luke 9:23). If God did not spare His own Son from agony of soul, then we should not expect Him to spare us from the cost of being His disciple!