“Or whatever brings You the most glory, God; ’cause what do I know?” 

Now there’s a clumsy prayer ending for you, prayed just yesterday. I started off my prayer eloquently, I thought, doing my best to be polished enough to be heard by God over the demands of my own flesh. In other words, apparently I slip into old habits of acting as if I have to earn my Father’s love. I know the reality: He loves me so much that He wants to hear all of my heart-felt, unvarnished, non-measured words of authenticity. No reason to try to hide myself or put on airs. He already knows my flaws, my pride, my sins, my overindulgences, my…you name it, as well as the good parts of my soul (too many to name, believe me).

And so, while in the midst of praying about, and mostly wrestling over, an important purchase I was contemplating, I landed spontaneously on the ending “Or whatever brings You the most glory, God; ’cause what do I know?” Whereupon, my first reaction was to have a good laugh over my ungainly prayer wind up. However, it only took mulling it over for the better part of 10 seconds to come to a different train of thought: Well, what’s so funny here? There’s nothing wrong with the ending to my prayer. In fact, it’s arguably as heartfelt as I’ve ever ended a prayer, a clear awareness that there is an infinite distance between God’s perfect knowledge and what I think I know.

Another way I could have said all this: After I had my laugh and reflection, I saw I was on target after all. My prayerful conclusion was simply my heart’s way of expressing gratitude that I have a mighty, doting Father who knows what I need (and don’t need) even before I know to ask.

In Jesus’ own words: “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…'” (Mt 6:7-13).

I hope this encourages you to pray with grateful abandon today.

Kevin Murray
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