"Prayin' Man"

That cowboy is a prayin’ man,

And if you don’t believe,

You’ll often find him on his knees,

Willing to receive,

The answer that he prays about,

The people and their needs,

And sometimes the Lord will speak,

And plant some awesome seeds.

When we do our prayin’,

And sometimes the list gets long,

Of all the things we ask for,

Not sayin’ this is wrong.

‘Cause God says we should make requests,

To Him we should make known,

But the longer I have served the Lord,

I think that He has shown,

After we pray specifically,

We let go what we’ve prayed,

Surrender it into His hands,

And till then we stayed,

Quietly before Him,

To listen for His will,

Sometimes He will let us know,

And sometimes not until,

Later as the problem shifts,

And we have eyes to see,

That what we prayed had limits,

For God in charge to be.

Receive the peace when praying,

And let it rule our hearts,

Ready to obey Him,

And always play our parts.

Here’s what I want, in Jesus’ name.

But, Lord, your will be done,

And if you’re telling me to act,

I will and never run.

Praying, seeking, doing,

Is the package when we grow,

And we just need to pass it on,

So everyone can know.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6-7, NIV)

it’s totally okay to talk to God about anything and everything, and to ask for anything that comes to mind. But authentic faith requires us to surrender our requests into God’s hands and trust Him to answer according to His will and timing. Sometimes He will adjust what we ask on the spot. Sometimes He will speak to us directly about what we’ve requested. But sometimes we just have to trust Him to work it out. The great peace of the Lord is promised, not with the answer to our prayer necessarily, but because we prayed and put it in God’s hands.

Lord, let Your peace rule our hearts, in Jesus’ name.

Photo by Steve Wrubel, used by permission. Thanks, Steve, and God bless you.