I don’t know about you, but when I come to God with a prayer request it often sounds a little something like this: “Dear Lord, today I pray for the health of my friend. Her prognosis sounds hopeless so I release her future into your hands, but I also pray for her healing. Although there is nothing glaringly wrong with a prayer like that, the subtext of my words is utter hopelessness. I don’t believe that God will heal her so I subtly alter my wording to reflect my low expectations, not my true desires. This type of prayer is not unlike a letter that a little girl once wrote to a missionary. She wrote to tell him that her Sunday school class had been praying for him. However, she had been told not to request a response to her letter because the missionaries were very busy. As a result of these instructions, the missionary received the following comical response: “Dear Mr. Missionary, we are praying for you. But we are not expecting an answer.” This girl’s letter is an analogy for my prayer life. So often I pray for the healing of a loved one or the reconciliation of a broken marriage, while secretly believing it is too late. I think I already know what God is going to do so I pray out of duty, but I don’t expect a positive answer. At least, that was how I used to pray. Until I read Acts 12
Posted on: Sun, 07 Jul 2013 23:52:15 +0000
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