Adjusting Perspectives

He said to them, "When you pray say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."--Luke 11:2

Because I am still a relatively new employee where I work, I sometimes struggle to understand exactly what it is my supervisor wants me to be doing for a particular project. Initially I was afraid to ask a lot of questions because I didn't want to appear incompetent or insubordinate. My supervisor and I each have a different vantage point when it comes to completing certain tasks--he has far more experience than I do, but I often have creative ideas about how to do things. Over the last year I have learned how important it is to communicate with my supervisor not only to understand where he's coming from, but to get a better handle on how the whole project fits together.

My work attitude sometimes carries over into my spiritual attitude. There are times when I don't even dare ask God "why" certain things happen, lest He think I am weak. I was of the mindset that God is God and what he says goes. God is omnipotent and sovereign, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want us to talk to him and ask about the things we don't understand. Although we cannot do anything to influence God, the act of communicating with him through prayer does much to teach us about his will.

God doesn't always give answers that make sense to us, and that's because we are merely human. When we echo Jesus' words of "your will be done", what we're really telling God is that we know our place. We know that he has a plan, and we have faith that leads us to believe that God's will is being carried out exactly as it should be in our lives, but we are also acknowledging that we are not the ones in charge. Although God certainly doesn't need our permission to carry out his plan for his people, I'm sure he smiles on those who approach his throne with an attitude of humility and submissiveness.

Even when I haven't understood the steps involved in God's plan, I have seen Him do wonderful and amazing things in my own life and the lives of others. I won't ever fully comprehend how the pieces of his plan fit together, but I know he is in complete control. It is because of the evidence of his will in my life that I say truly that his name is hallowed. The more I keep in close communication with God through prayer and the reading of my Bible, the more I understand the character of God and the better I become at seeing things from his perspective.