Pray Like Jesus In Tough TimesSample

When we have critical decisions to make, it’s sometimes hard to know how to pray, but Jesus shows us how in what I think is the best prayer we can offer God. In the Gethsemane garden, he prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).

In Jan Karon’s MITFORD series of novels, the protagonist, Father Tim, often says “Thy will be done” is the perfect prayer. It may actually be the best prayer we can utter that also expresses our humanity. We acknowledge what our instincts and heart and mind want, but we also express our desire to have God’s will played out in our lives. I call this the two-sided-coin prayer, one side of the coin representing something on earth such as a torch or Monticello or a shield, the other side with the head of an American president such as Lincoln or Washington—but also with the expression “In God we trust.” 

Fortunately, though, such a prayer isn’t like a flip of the coin. We pray the best possible way when we pray Jesus' “Thy will be done,” because the Father does have the best for us. That result may not be what we might want, but it is best for God’s plan for our lives and others’.