Daily Devotions

What do you do when you feel out of sorts, out of alignment with yourself and the world around you? Alignment  can mean an arrangement in a straight line, a position of agreement or alliance.

If our vehicle wheels are out of alignment, they do not drive straight, they use more fuel and they become unsafe if left out of alignment.

The same is true for our bodies, if they are out of alignment, our bodies do not function properly, and we often have pain and discomfort. Alignment is also important in our spiritual lives.

We read in 1 John 5:14 we read.”When our hearts are aligned with God in faith, he tells us to pray with boldness, expecting that our prayers will be answered.” I think that we all recognise the power of alignment whenever a group of people is willing to divest themselves of self-determined outcomes and invest their talents, will, and energy in a common direction in order to accomplish a common goal.

With this verse in mind C. H. Dodd writes: "Prayer rightly considered is not a device for employing the resources of omnipotence to fulfil our own desires, but a means by which our desires may be redirected according to the mind of God, and made into channels for the forces of his will." 

Another way of looking at this alignment is that Prayer is bending our will to the will of God through cooperating with God’s purpose. If I throw out a boat hook from a boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.  

I thank you Lord for the gift of prayer. It is a privilege to be able to come to you with our requests, hopes and burdens and lay them down before you. Thank you that you hear our prayers and answer them according to your will and not our desires, because you know what is best for us and have the perfect plan for our lives. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.