God’s Heart and Ours

God’s Heart and Ours | Devotional

[ Jesus said,] “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!” John 15:7

One of the primary ways God accomplishes his purposes on earth is through the prayers of his people. And one of our primary motivations for prayer is the desires in our hearts.

It’s a remarkable dynamic, but we seem to have something of a love-hate relationship with it. On the one hand, the longings within us instinc- tively find a voice in our prayers; on the other, we mistrust those desires and plead for his will to be done.

Scripture shows us, however, that God blesses our requests when they are founded on a relationship of delight with him (Psalm 37:4).

And Jesus assures us that our desires are trustworthy when our lives are based on him and his words (John 15:7). As much as we may mistrust our own desires, Scripture points us back to them.

It’s true that God wants our desires to align with his, but that’s not the unreach- able, shot-in-the-dark kind of process we sometimes think it is.

Throughout Scripture, his relationship with his people suggests not a unilateral, find-my-will-or-else agenda but a blending of hearts.

We were created to come close to a Father who has made himself vulnerable to the longings of his people and to absorb his desires as he cares for and works through ours.

He doesn’t want to accomplish his purposes arbitrarily, independent of our hopes and dreams. He wants us to dream with him.

It’s a beautiful thing when our dreams intersect with God’s purposes. Doors open, miracles happen, the Kingdom advances, and hearts are fulfilled.

It may not always be a smooth process—sometimes it’s rather disorienting, in fact—but it’s good.

It’s how God has chosen to partner with the people he has made in his image and called to fill the world with his goodness. It’s his modus operandi in a world being restored back to him.

God shapes the world by prayer.