Five Minute Friday is a writing event that has writers spending five minutes writing on the same topic and then sharing them at http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/. This week's word is Expect.
I'm going to admit something. When I pray, I expect God to do what I ask. I'd like to think that is a sign of faith but in some ways, it is a sign of arrogance, like I know what is best for me. I picture him up in heaven like the above photo, signalling to the angels and saying like a benevolent Captain Picard, "Make it so."
I never stop to think about what's right or worse, what's God's will, I just ask away and expect to be granted my wish. I guess that means I see God as more of a fairy godmother than my heavenly father.
It doesn't matter if it is little things like, "Please make the bathtub faucet quit leaking" or "Please make my aunt well." I expect my prayer to be answered. And for things like "Please send someone to love me" I expect a 24 hour turn around.
What if I gave myself a break and didn't expect myself to know what's best. What if I simply prayed, "God, please give me what is best for me." I bet that prayer would be answered every time. Why do I expect to have all the answers for how my life would be when God had it planned as far back as 54 years ago when my parents were expecting me.
What if I lived in expectancy that every day was going to be exactly what's God plan was for me? I can't imagine the relief that would bring. But, like the Rich Mullins lyric says, "I'd rather fight you for something I don't really want than take what you give that I need," I expect that I will continue to pursue my plan for my life. And I expect that it will continue to feel as though, and I'm quoting Rich Mullins again, "I've beat my head against so many walls" until I sit in that rest and learn to expect great things for my life if I quit trying to do God's job. Because I suspect that if I let God's plan unfold in my life, it will so much better than anything I expected.
Visiting from FMF. I wrote about expectations in prayer too. I agree, it can be really hard to let go of what we want, when we're sure we know what is best. I like your idea of praying, "God, give me what is best for me." Often when God has not answered my prayers as I have wanted it has made sense later- he knows best and has given some amazing unexpected blessings.
ReplyDeletevisiting from FMF—it never occurred to me that we often expect God simply to hand out whatever we ask for. But yes, indeed, I do. I love the rich Mullins quotes and his, "help me Jesus, I'm shaking like a leaf. You've been my King of Glory, won't you be my Prince of Peace?" BTW, I'm in spot #68 and here.
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