Prayer; it’s something that we as Christians are encouraged to do and it seems that many people pray for everything which would be a good thing, IF we learn to also listen and accept the answer that He gives us.

In 1 John 5:14-15 we are told “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” This passage is talking about asking for and praying for everything. Not just the big stuff but the little stuff too. However, where I think a lot of people fail is we don’t ask in His will, we ask in ours.

God gave us free will so that we would come to Him willingly and of our own accord. I know that is a hard concept to understand since we are taught that God has sovereignty over all. He does, but He also allows us to make decisions, He just knows the outcome of each decision. He knows what will happen when we pray and when we ask for things too. I think where we fail as humans is to understand that when we pray we need to align our will with His and learn that sometimes the answer to a prayer is, “NO.”

I am sure we would all like our relative to have perfect healing, or that baby to be born perfect, or that job offer to come through, or that house to become ours and sometimes all those things happen, but sometimes none of those things happen. It stinks at times and it can be very painful, but our God is awesome even in the worst moments when we don’t understand why.

I also think we miss the mark when we pray and the prayers become more about the words than the thought behind it. The most simple and honest prayer is, “Lord please help me!” I don’t believe that God gives more help to those whose prayers go on for 5 or more minutes or who use flowery words, or whose every other word is Lord or Father. He knows our hearts and He knows when we are being insincere, or it is truly the cry of our heart. We as humans make it so much more complicated than it needs to be. Little children when saying their prayers at night have been known to bless the carpet on the floor, but maybe it was because their feet didn’t get cold climbing into bed, or for the juice that they had today because it was their favorite. As adults, we begin to complicate prayer and make it more about the way it sounds to others than the heart behind it.

It’s hard to listen for that still small voice in the whirlwind of the world. It’s hard to stop long enough to hear God’s answer and it’s easy to become busy enough to ignore the no or the not yet. God is the best Father there is and sometimes a great father must say not now or no, but our great Father also gets to tell us yes more times than I think we are even aware of.

I need to learn to pray more prayers of Thanksgiving. Not all my days are rotten and not all of them find me calling out for help. Some days are simply wonderful and other are just fine. It’s in those times that I need to be mindful and thank God for even just a peaceful day sans drama.

Father thank you for getting me through today. It has been shall we say, a day and yet I find myself wanting another one. Help me to be mindful of your presence… oh and by the way could you maybe do something to help the scale move a bit faster in the lose column? Thanks!