As we end our 30 Days of Prayer, I want to bring us back to the reason we started this in the first place. Prayer is about connection with God.  It’s about being in his presence and receiving life from him.  One final key in experiencing that kind of life is learning to surrender.

In prayer, we bring our requests to God, we trust that he has heard us that he cares and that he is capable of intervening.  We believe that he will enter into our situations and do something, even if it’s not what we wanted or expected.  Then we surrender to him, saying not my will but yours.

It is this moment, the moment of yielding our will to his that we find his peace.  Surrender brings peace, because it acknowledges that God is not ours to control and that the outcome isn’t dependent on us. In surrender we leave our cares and anxieties in the hands of God.  By surrendering to his will we don’t have wonder our prayers weren’t good enough for God to come through.  In surrender we don’t carry the responsibility of making something happen, we leave that to God.

Now, let me say that we absolutely pray like it depends on us, knowing that our prayer have power and influence.  But at the moment of surrender, we say I’ve done all I can, and now I leave it to God.  In that moment, we pray the way Jesus’ taught us when he prayed ferociously in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We follow the example given to us when he asked God the Father to allow him to not have to endure the crucification that was about to happen.  And after praying with such intensity that he sweat blood, Jesus prays, “not my will, but yours be done.”

So, whatever you’re praying for today, pray fiercely.  Pray with fervor and intensity and when you’ve done all you can, surrender it to Jesus and rest in his peace.

Remember, just because our 30 days is up, doesn’t mean we’re done.  In fact, we’re just getting started.  Keep praying.  Keep connecting.  Meet with God and experience his voice, his life, his victory and his peace.  

Amen.