A Prayer Asking God for His Perspective
By Jodie Niznik
“Jesus turned to Peter and said… ‘You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.’” – Matthew 16:23
Before Jesus said this, he stated plainly that he would suffer many things and then be killed. Peter wouldn’t stand for this, so he pulled Jesus aside and rebuked him. Peter had good intentions. He was attempting to protect Jesus, his Rabbi and friend, from pain and suffering. But Peter’s intentions were misguided. What seemed right and good to Peter wasn’t actually the truest right or the best good.
Think about it – what if Peter had succeeded in keeping Jesus from the pain of the crucifixion? This temporary relief would have created a ripple effect of devastating consequences from which we’d still be reeling today. Just like Peter, we need a perspective shift. We see things from our point of view, which is reasonable. It is, after all, our reference point. But what if we caught a glimpse of God’s perspective? How might this change the way we pray? How might this change how we wait on God or receive answers we don’t want?
It’s not that we shouldn’t pray boldly, asking God for what’s on our hearts. After all, God encourages us to do this. But after we pray these prayers, what if we pause and ask God to give us a different perspective than the one we are clinging to? Jesus modeled this when he prayed in the garden, asking God if there was any other way to accomplish his will. But then Jesus, in trust and surrender, said, “Not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)
It’s a great reminder that God’s ways are not always our ways, but his ways are always the best. Let’s go to God now and ask him to give us a glimpse of his perspective.
Let’s pray:
Lord Jesus, thank you for this lesson from Peter’s life. It’s easy to identify with Peter in this moment. We also want to protect those we love when we see them walking toward pain and hardship. And yet, in this moment, Peter standing in the way would have saved a moment of pain but created an eternity of loss.
Lord, there are many things we long for and have been praying for. Places where we need your help. Places where we deeply desire for you to step in and heal, restore, or solve a problem we are facing. So right now, Lord, we ask that you would help us open our hands on these things. We confess that we only see them from our limited perspective. We ask that you would give us a glimpse of your perspective. Help us to know and trust that even if we can’t see why things aren’t working out the way we desire, you are working them out for our good and your glory.
Lord, would you help us to recall a time when we wanted something deeply, but you had a different plan – and now, with the clarity that time often gives us, we can look back and see how much better your plan was than our own. Lord, would you allow this memory to help build our trust in you? Lord, help us take a deep breath and remember that you are working it all out – and there will come a day when we will understand that your plan is better than our own.
We may not understand your ways, but we know we can trust them. And so we declare again that we love you and trust you – and we say, not our will but yours be done. We pray all this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Photo credit: Ben White via Unsplash
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