| The Golden Gate of Prayer |
Chapter 8 |
Page 6 |
The prayer is that the will of God may be done on earth, that is, all over the earth, by all the millions of the race. Yet while this wide aspect should be kept always in view, while we should pray for the submission of all men to the divine sway, it is for the doing of this blessed will in our own life that we are to pray primarily and particularly.
That is the portion of the earth for which we are specially and personally responsible. It is possible that a man may give much thought and care to other lives and neglect his own. We need to guard against this mistake. Each man’s life is his own in a peculiar sense. In the matter of the will no one can act for any other. The mother cannot surrender her child’s will to God. She may bring influences to bear upon it
— reasons, motives, persuasions; but meanwhile the child holds in its own hand the scepter of its life, and alone can yield up the will in which are folded the destinies of the life.
It is right we should pray that all men may be inclined to yield their will to God’s; also, that we should do all we can to lead those about us to make this surrender. But our first responsibility is for the bringing of our own will into subjection to God. This no other one can do for us. In the citadel of our life each one of us is sovereign. Even God, with his omnipotence, will never compel us to love and obey him. We alone can make the surrender and it must be voluntary.
“Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours to make them thine.”
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