Let Your Requests Be Made Known
Lisa Cooke

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
– Philippians 4:6

The above passage is a favored Bible verse for many of God’s children. To be told that we don’t have to worry, but can tell God what we need through prayer is indeed a holy kindness. I have spent many prayer hours telling God what I need and what I think others need. I have taken God at His word and have made my requests known to Him every day of my Christianity.

As I was doing this very thing in my prayer time today, I found myself praying a flipped version of this: “Father, make Your requests known to me.” In a healthy relationship here on earth, the two parties have fairly equal give and take. Lopsided relationships where one person does all the taking and the other person does all the giving are not mutually fulfilling, especially to the person doing all the giving.

Jesus lived, died, and rose again so that our relationship with God could be restored through accepting Jesus’ atonement for us personally. We enter into a covenant relationship with the Trinity that we should cultivate and invest in through intention, just as we would a natural relationship. We have received so much from God in our relationship with Him, but what are we giving back to Him? Are we interested in the things that interest Him?

By praying “Make Your requests known to me” we open up a two way communication that fosters a mature and loving bond between ourselves and our God. But in doing this, we may have to face a fear that we’ve been trying to ignore, the fear of “what will God ask of me?” How many of us have feared a missions call, or a call to forgive that one person we can’t find within ourselves to forgive? We run scared of the thought that He might ask us to do something hard, or something that we don’t want to do. In our trepidation we fail to remember that He is love, and that whatever He asks of us He graces us to do in His power, not our own. Whatever His requests may be, we can be sure that they will bring Him glory and fulfill His will in the earth, and this is the heart cry of all believers who love their God.

Once the fears are addressed and their power dispelled, we are free to hear the heart of God the Father for His creation. What an honor to have God share with us His desires and requests, His plans and purposes. It brings us to a higher realm of relationship with Him and that will bless both sides. I can imagine this was the kind of relationship that God had with Adam and Eve before the fall, a mutually satisfying communication and fellowship between each other where freedom to say what was on one’s heart was permitted. We can give this gift back to God when we ask Him to let His requests be made known to us. Let’s be all ears to hear what He has to say!