I have a lot of questions for God about prayer.
Probably because we don’t always agree on things. I can get confused when I pray and try to trade places with Him, because I really like running the show myself.
God’s plans are perfect, but they’re not easy. They are for our formation and His glory, but I want them to be for my comfort and convenience. Why can’t He just get with the Laura plan?
We have gratification goals. God has galaxy goals.
We see now. God sees eternity.
There’s a verse I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.
The mother of James and John asked Jesus if her sons might be able to sit at His right and left side in His kingdom. I picture it kind of like me running into Bill Gates in the grocery store (although I’m sure Bill doesn’t do his own shopping) and asking him to make my daughters CEO’s of two of his companies.
Jesus’ response?
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them.
Matthew 20:22
I’m guessing Jesus wants to say that to me a lot.
In another place, Jesus rebukes Peter who’s arguing with him about the cross.
“You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
mark 8:33
I can imagine Jesus saying that to me too!
The most helpful picture I have of how prayer works is that of me in a small boat on a lake. The boat is tethered by a long rope to a huge redwood tree on the shore. My job isn’t to pull the redwood to me, but to pull me in my boat to the redwood.
The goal of prayer isn’t to make God adjust to my will, but to humbly align myself with His will.
“Faith means trusting that if I knew what God knows and loved like God loves, I’d do what God does.“
john ortberg
I marvel at people who are so sure of God’s will that they pray boldly, like a boss. I’m not that confident, which is good motivation to get to know Him better.
A friend of mine shares the story of two little girls who were playing by a pond. Denise fell in and Maria managed to grab her friend’s long hair and hold her head above the water until help came.
The press picked up the story and interviewed the hero, Maria, asking how the event had changed her life. She answered: “Denise won’t play with me anymore; she says I pulled her hair!”
Sometimes it feels like God is pulling our hair when He’s saving our lives.
Lord, You know what we don’t know. You see what we don’t see. You are good. Help us to pray according to Your will, and trust you even when we don’t understand.
What are your thoughts on prayer?
This is what I needed to read this morning. I like to pull God to me ! I need to remember he has the big picture.😀
So glad it resonated, Laura!
It’s the one thing I want to do more of “right”, and the more I do, the less I seem to know, except I say more often, Lord, I don’t understand but I trust You. I often wonder if we are supposed to even understand it, this thing of prayer.
I think even in our not knowing, as it draws us to the Lord it pleases Him. Like it pleases a dad when his daughter curls up on his lap just to be with him.
This really had me digging into my introspective self. I tend to have the opposite problem when I pray for myself and this issue when I pray for my family or others. I don’t seem to be able to ask God for what I need but pray for acceptance for whatever will or has happened during another bend in the road with boulders strewn about. I’m not sure that is what he wants for me either and makes me wonder why I see myself differently. I need to work at finding a balance with this.
So interesting! It is such a balance – we can feel safe in expressing our heart’s desires and trusting His great love for us, asking for what we need, but also need to trust that the way He answers may not look like what we expect because our understanding is limited.