Dangerous Prayers: Part 3 “Lead Me”
- Continuing our series Dangerous Prayers— and I love what this series is pushing us to do— to pray dangerrously— to pray in such a way that we invite the Lord to stir in us, to speak to us, to work in us— to not remain unchanged, untransformed, but to be compelled to move, to discover.
- That’s what makes these prayers so dangerous: “Search me” leaves nothing hidden, “send me” invites us to discovery, and this morning we’re going to look at the prayer “lead me”— which brings us to abundant life
- “Lead me” is interesting prayer because we don’t see the phrase “lead me” all that often outside of a handful of Psalms, but we are given a couple powerful examples of its sentiment and posture. We see it when Mary receives the word from the angel about giving birth to the Son of God— she replies with “I’m the Lord’s servant, be unto me according to word.” She’s saying “lead me.” We also see it in the life of Jesus. He mentions on a few occasions that He only does what the Father tells him to do.
- The prayer “lead me” is dangerous because it requires us to surrender certain things—things we may not want to surrender, things we hold dear, things we want to protect, but as we surrender, we also receive. [Read Luke 22:39-44]
- We surrender our CONTROL to receive DIRECTION
- This is one of the greatest examples of Jesus’ humanity—Here Jesus is, on the night he is to be arrested, the night before he is to be beaten, tortured, and crucified and humiliated, the night before he bears the weight of every sin of every person past, present, or future— He prays “ Father if its your will, let this cup pass from me.”— He doesn’t want to do it. He doesn’t want to go through with it. And there’s so much anguish, so much agony and emotional distress that the capillary blood vessels on his forehead begin to rupture, and he begins sweating blood.
- BUT he says (and this is incredible) “not my will, but yours be done.” He surrenders control. He knows what He is being asked to do, he knows the direction He is to go.
- We like being in control as humans, we like deciding where to go, when to go, how to get there, but the prayer “lead me” pushes us to a place where we let go of our control and listen to what God has for us— the mark of a true disciple— someone who “hears and obeys.” We won’t ever discover the direction and purpose God has for us while we still insist on controlling every aspect of our lives.
- We surrender our EGO to receive CLARITY
- Jesus lived a perfect, sinless, blameless life. He was literally God-incarnate. He had hosts of angels at his command. He has dominion over the natural, the supernatural, sickness, even life and death. Yet at no point does he say “I don’t deserve this! I’m the Son of God!” If ever there was someone to justify having an ego, it would have been Jesus. But he doesn’t. He full commits to come under the direction of the Father, to surrender— “not my will, but yours.”
- Ego hinders clarity— It essentially creates a barrier between yourself an reality. Our ego directly impacts the mind, blocks the ability for us to hear from the heart and even the body.
- The ego is very powerful but it is also very fragile— often based more on perception, personal preferences, shallow confidence, and emotion— and is often swayed by those things.
- But when we are not driven by ego, when we say to the Lord “not my will but yours,” we open ourselves to truth, we open ourselves to direction, it allows us to surrender control, to find not just direction but direction with clarity. When we surrender our ego, we are poised to receive wisdom. We become even stronger and more sound. We aren’t swayed by wants and desires, feelings, perceptions, preferences, cultural norms or expectations. We are now positioned to receive whatever it is the Lord has for us and experience that with strength and clarity.
- We surrender our LIVES to receive ABUNDANT LIFE
- As Jesus surrendered his control, and submitted to the Father, He also was surrendering his life—literally, he was about to die. But through the surrendering of His life, all of mankind can now be redeemed, restored, and renewed. Because of what Jesus did in this moment, and what he did on the cross, and what he did with His resurrection, life can be so much more— I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (Jn 10:10) we can discover freedom from addiction, freedom from performance-based religion and living, we can have renewed relationships, whatever is broken can be restored, love itself finds a new depth and scope, we find strength in the hard times, clarity in confusing times, and His faithfulness in all times
- When we surrender our lives, when we pray “lead me,” we open ourselves to discover an abundance in life that is only found in Jesus, and through Jesus. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. (Mt 16:25)
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