Rerouting … Rerouting … Reorienting?

So often we pray for God to take us in the direction we desire. But our great God knows the way we should be going. As Hunter Williams — missionary to Central and Southeast Tennessee and this month’s guest author — discusses, sometimes the best prayer is asking God to reorder and reorient our heart to align with His.

Rerouting … Rerouting … Reorienting?

“NOOOO!” This was my immediate response when I encountered bumper-to-bumper traffic on the interstate. I was on my way to speak at a church and was already running later than desired. As I sat in the immovable frustration of evening gridlock, I began sifting through different routes I could take to bypass the traffic. 

Before maneuvering to the nearest exit, I scrolled through the navigation app on my phone to see if I was making the best decision. To my surprise, wading through the sea of cars was the greatest option. The traffic was heavy, but it wasn’t as long as it appeared. From my limited point of view, it seemed endless; but from the overhead perspective of my navigation app, I got a better picture of the depth and length of the congestion. Consulting my app revealed my best option wasn’t requesting a new route, but aligning my actions with a greater perspective.

Prayer is often associated with making a request. It’s typically seen as the way believers talk with God and ask Him for what is needed. While prayer certainly includes supplication for personal needs and intercession for the needs of others, it also involves a reordering of the heart. C.S. Lewis popularly said, “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It [prayer] doesn’t change God. It changes me.”

These powerful words remind us that prayer goes beyond supplication. It’s a means of changing the heart. Prayer reminds us that God is present in all situations, and that His glory is the greatest good in every circumstance.

In the busyness of life, it’s easy to get into the habit of treating God like an all-powerful GPS, requesting that He reroute His plans to fit our desires. But God is much more than the navigator of our requests. He is the Lord of Lords that knows all things and the Good Father who knows what’s best for us. This means the greatest thing God can do for us in our moments of prayer is reorient our hearts to align with His.

When prayer is seen as a means of positioning our lives under the perspective of God, then the immediate cry of our hearts in moments of frustration won’t be “reroute, reroute, reroute” but “reorient, reorient, reorient.”

As you spend time with God during the month of April, please join us in praying for the needs of Awana ministries around the world. You can do so by downloading our April Prayer Calendar and by becoming a prayer partner. Go to awana.org/prayer.