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Scripture:

Jacob 4:10—Seek not to counsel the Lord.

When we finally surrender our lives and our will to God, we begin to pray in a whole new way. Our prayers begin to have less emphasis on what we want, and more emphasis on what would be best—whatever that may be. We begin to trust the outcome to God. We find ourselves not counseling the Lord by asking for specific things, but counseling with Him about what He would have us have, do and be.

One of the most beautiful testimonies of seeking to do God’s will in all things comes from Bill Wilson, co-founder of AA:

I was to test my thinking by the new God-consciousness within. Common sense would thus become uncommon sense. I was to sit quietly when in doubt, asking only for direction and strength to meet my problems as He would have me…

My friend promised when these things were done I would enter upon a new relationship with my Creator; that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my problems. Belief in the power of God, plus enough willingness, honesty and humility to establish and maintain the new order of things, were the essential requirements.

Simple, but not easy; a price had to be paid. It meant destruction of self-centeredness. I must turn in all things to the Father of Light who presides over us all. (AA, 13-14)

It takes some of us a long time to realize that Alma 37:37 doesn’t say “Counsel the Lord in all thy doings,” but says instead, “Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings.”

Application:

Ponder and write about this mighty change of focus in prayer. What does it feel like to try on the idea of “praying only for a knowledge of His will for [you, not your child or spouse or other] and the power to carry that out” (Step 11)?

Can you see the way that this program helps us to prepare to be “at–one” with the Lord? Write about what it means in your life to be “at–one” (as one) with the Savior’s heart and mind. What does this imply about your relationship with the Father, since He and the Savior are as one in all things?

~Excerpted from Patterns of Light I ©2013, 2000 Hearthaven Publishing

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