PRAY, DON'T HEDGE
"And Lord, if it be your will, please grant us [blank]"
This phrase is one I've used and heard a lot when praying with others. However, I no longer use it and generally dislike it. Let me explain.
"If it be your will" is most likely rooted in the prayer of Jesus in Luke 22:42. Jesus knew he was going to the cross. His arrest would be soon. He asked his disciples to keep watch, then went a stone's throw away and prayed. The ESV translates it as saying, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done."
It may also be based on James 4:14-15, which the ESV translates as, "Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.'"
Perhaps the ethos behind using the phrase "if it be your will" is a desire to avoid being presumptuous toward God. That's wise. Yet imperceptibly, another ethos may take its place, an ethos of hedging our bets toward God.
This is what I mean. Children ask boldly. "Dad, can we get a puppy?" Children don't say, "Dad, can we get a puppy, if it be your will?" Children might say, "Dad, if you are willing, get us a puppy!"
If we are not careful when we pray, the desire not to be presumptuous can turn into a half-hearted request made up of more doubt than faith.
It's helpful to look at Luke 22:42 and also compare it to Matthew 26:39. And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
In neither of those verses does Jesus plainly say, "If it be your will." The other thing to remember is that here, Jesus knows what is about to happen. He expects certain things to take place. He has known this plan with the Father since before the foundation of the world (see, for example, Revelation 13:8).
In the garden, Jesus faced the gravity of that plan differently than when he raised Lazarus from the dead and said, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” (John 12:27-28) Yet in both instances he was ready to go through with the plan.
Jesus was not ignorant when he prayed, "if you are willing," and he did not hedge by saying, "if it be your will," and neither should we. If you pray regularly using this phrase, you need to check in with yourself and ask why you do so. Is it humility? Or is it doubt?
Here's a way to diagnose your heart and mind on this. Imagine that you're talking to someone in customer service and you ask, "Do you have my paperwork on file?" They reply that they will have to go check in the back. They leave you and go into a room where there is a drawer, and they look through it for your plan on file. You hope they will find it, but it might just not be there.
Is that what you think about God's will when you pray? That's more like hedging because of doubt.
Instead, pray more like a child, because when you're connected to God in Christ, that's what you are! You are God's beloved child. You were adopted at the cost of the blood of Christ. So ask God for things more like a child would ask their father for something - with boldness and respect - unafraid to express your desires.
Yet also trust that you can receive a yes or a no, and the outcome will be good because your Heavenly Father knows best.
In a future post, I'll talk about how we deal with prayers that are answered in ways that disappoint us.