Whether Christian or not, Mongolians will often ask us to pray for them. Those who are non-Christians have no idea to whom or what we are praying. Yet grateful for our prayers, they hold on to a shred of hope, believing that just maybe the so-called foreign God of western religion, who resides somewhere in this vast universe, will answer their prayers.

Most who entreat us to pray are seeking relief from suffering; or they want God to provide for an immediate and pressing need. While others simply want a short-cut exit out of their poverty-stricken lives. Their requests are usually valid and remind me of my own frequent petitions and requests for healing and wholeness for myself and others.

Sometimes God answers our prayers in spectacular ways. Other times it feels as if He never even heard them. It can be disappointing, crushing even, especially when we feel that we are praying in accordance with scripture and with an understanding of God’s will and the only answer that comes is silence. What is God doing?

But our disappointments are no reason to stop bringing our requests to Him. He wants to hear our petitions. It is good and right to do so because God does answer. He does heal; He does provide for our needs and free us from suffering. However, we cannot dictate the outcome of our prayers.

When answers don’t come and our hearts sink, we must learn to recognise that God’s purposes are greater than ours. That He desires to strengthen our faith in Him if we will allow Him to do so. The Bible is rich with characters who pleaded with God to remove hardships from their lives, yet it was through those very hardships and tribulations that He purified those believers’ faith.

Christian prayer is about more than getting our prayers answered.

Jesus’s disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. He did not give them a formula, but rather a framework that we call the Lord’s Prayer. One line in that outline makes me tremble: ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’

Historically, kings or queens held much power over their kingdoms. Mongolia’s twelfth century king, Chinghis Khan, demanded complete allegiance to his rule. But in today’s world monarchs are largely constitutional figures, officiating ceremonial events and championing social causes. However, in Jesus’ day, a kingdom’s citizens would have been subject to their sovereign’s rule.

We pray to see the kingdom of God come on earth, but that prayer carries an alert: it has personal implications. For God’s kingdom to come the King must reign in me, which means I must surrender the control of my life over to Him. God did not call me to do my own will or to build my own kingdom. He did not call me ‘to do it my way,’ as the old but still popular song says. Rather He calls me to surrender all, so that He may work His godly purposes in and through me.

His kingdom reign begins in my heart as He resides there. But it doesn’t remain there. This kingdom reaches out, touching lives, churches and our communities with acts that reveal the beauty of the true king who comes to reign.

© copyright Gillian Newham 2020