Praying in His Will

HOMILY, SAT. JANUARY 7, 2012 Christmas Weekday

Praying in His Will


C.S. Lewis’ classic, The Screwtape Letters is a dialogue, a satirical conversation between two demons, Wormwood and his mentor Screwtape, who are tasked with securing the demise of their human "patients," especially of those that are followers of God who they call, “The Enemy.” In one section, Screwtape is advising Wormwood about the dangers of prayer:

“Whenever they are attending to the enemy himself, we are defeated, but there are ways of preventing them from doing so. The simplest is to turn their gaze away from Him, to themselves. Keep them watching their own minds and trying to produce feelings there by the action of their wills.”

The best thing, of course, says Screwtape, is to, “ wherever possible, keep the patient from the serious intention of praying altogether.” But the next best thing is, if they have to pray, have them pray “by the action of their wills.” This prayer becomes in essence, not a prayer to God, but a mere manifestation of the ego. It is, an ego-prayer.

St. John calls us to something different:

“That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask,
we know that what we have asked him for is ours.”

Praying according to the will of God means that I let go of the habitual way of being fixated in one direction--my direction—often the wrong direction, and instead, praying from an attitude of surrender. Prayer is no place for illusions. Yet, each of us clings to illusions, and we will end up somehow bringing them into our prayers. This leads to what James called "asking amiss".
That does not mean that we don’t make requests of God; that we don’t express our desires to Him. Even Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane prayed that the cup of the cross might pass from him—and presumably—Jesus knew how to pray according to the Father’s will.

We know some things from 1 John:


a. We know that we belong to God, and that he wants to affirmatively answer our prayers.
b. We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us discernment to exercise..
c. And we are cautioned: “Children, be on your guard against idols.” The idols created in and by our egos.


If we keep these three things in mind and pray for our needs and the needs of others surrendering to God rather than trying to control every outcome, and becoming puppeteers of God, we can be fairly certain that: “…he hears us…and that what we have asked him for is ours.”

In a sense, this first step means deciding that we want to do God’s will even before we know what it is! Think about that for a minute. Would you sign a blank check for just anybody and trust them to fill in the rest on their own. Probably not! But knowing God’s will begins there. You can’t negotiate with the Creator of the Universe. He asks you to decide up front whether you trust him enough to sign over your life to him. Once you have taken that step of faith, then he begins to let you in on what he wants to do—what his good, pleasing and perfect will is and how we can and should pray. Screwtape and Wormwood, notwithstanding.