Jesus is the perfect example of this mission and attitude in life. His goal was to always please His Father. Rather than seeking His own will, his desire was to the Father’s will (cf. John 5:30, 6:38). He prayed in Gethsemene, “Not my will, but Yours be done (Matt. 26:42) and, while on the cross, he said, “If this cup cannot pass away, except I drink it, your will be done” (Matthew 26:42; Mark 14:35-39). His whole life is characterized by one event after another that is in response to fulfilling God’s will. Of course, it is not so much for us to fulfill the will of God in the sense that Jesus came and fulfilled the law and His purpose to redeem the human race. But, we can still subject our wills to His and seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, first (Mat. 5:33). What he desires becomes our own. We might not know all of God’s will, but what we know, we can also seek to live accordingly.
Keep in mind that this desire of the heart is a prayer that expresses the attitude that God’s will be done, and not ours. In the context of prayer, His children most often express the desires of the heart that God do for them “as they will.” A majority pray the desires of their heart, not God’s heart. They ask, ask, and ask for those things that God has never promised, that does not represent heaven’s will, and then end the prayer with, “Not my will, but thine be done.” The influence of such a prayer is the belief that if we ask anything in prayer with the magical words, “in your name,” He will grant it (John 14:13). Regarding this promise, Jesus was talking to His apostles about their needed assistance when he departs from them. Second, to pray in Jesus’ name in to pray on the basis of Jesus’ authority, but it always involves praying according to the will of God, for the will of God is what Jesus always did (John 6:38). This truth is stated explicitly in 1 John 5:14, “If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” Our requests must be congruent with the will of God. I hear some zealous preachers mislead people by telling them that if they have enough faith and pray in Jesus’ name, God will grant whatever they ask. This conclusion is not supported in the Scriptures.
It is only those who make the Father’s will the supreme object of their own will who will pray acceptably. To teach that God will grant whatever we ask is diametrically opposed to the teaching of Jesus in the example He gives on how to pray. The manner is not only one of respect for His person and His rule, but for our will to be in harmony with His. Prayer should never be an effort to change God’s mind, but to change our mind to be like His mind. In keeping with the propensity of man to ask for the desires of one’s own heart, it is often in conjunction with asking only on the occasions when a man wants something or when he needs help. The mother of James and John selfishly requested special roles for her sons in the kingdom. She thought only of her will (Mark 10:37, cf. Matt. 20:20). In contrast, the one whose desire is to have God’s will done prays everywhere at all times because a relationship exists between a loving Father who is always concerned about us and his children whose will of the Father is supreme in his heart.