Lord, Teach Me to Do Your Will

Psalm 143:8-10 says, "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to You I lift up my soul. Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord, for I hide myself in You. Teach me to do your will, for You are my God; may Your good Spirit lead me on level ground."

In my Bible, I have the letters "BPE" next to this prayer of David: a.k.a., one of the best prayers ever. There are a lot of wonderful prayers in Scripture that I think are intended to serve as models for our own prayer lives, and this is certainly one of them. What really strikes me the most about verse 10 is what David doesn't say: "Teach me to know Your will" or "Reveal your will to me." There is a bit of a disconnect between most of my prayers and this one; in most of my prayers in which I am asking the Lord about His will, I am asking Him to reveal it to me--not to teach me how to do it! David prayed, "Lord, teach me to DO your will." In other words, sometimes a commitment to obedience must come first! Someone once wrote, "God reveals His will to those who are fully committed to doing it." Instead of always praying that I would know what God's will for my life is, I should pray that I will have learned how to obey completely and how to follow God's will wholeheartedly whenever He does reveal it to me. I think that God probably more readily offers glimpses of His will and plan to people whose hearts are open to following Him wherever He leads.

The model prayer is not, "Lord, show me what to do and what your life plan for me is." No, it is, "Lord, give me an obedient heart above all else. Teach me surrender. Teach me to do Your will--no matter what it is."

The psalmist also offers a rationale behind his devoted commitment to doing God's will: "Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God." You are my God. We pray for God to teach us obedience, because he is our God! He is our God, and no matter how dark our night is, the morning will eventually come, bringing us word of His unfailing love. I have found this to be true in my life. We may wait an incredibly long time for that morning, that revelation of God's love for us, but it will come. And until it does, may we embrace a complete surrender and obedience to the God who holds our hand in the darkness. He is always enough.