James 4:1-3
What is causing the quarrels and fights
among you? Isn’t it because there is a whole army of evil desires
within you? You want what you don’t have, so you kill to get it. You
long for what others have, and can’t afford it, so you start a fight to
take it away from them. And yet the reason you don’t have what you want
is that you don’t ask God for it. And even when you do ask you don’t get
it because your whole aim is wrong—you want only what will give you
pleasure.
The Living Bible
copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of
Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights
reserved.
For more than a year, we’ve gone out to eat
with the children after church on Sunday. There are about five
restaurants that we have rotated through…and of course, the children
have their favorites – Pizza Hut® and Burger King®, for starters!
Timothy and Zola “campaigned” for one of these two options every Sunday,
so Greg would say, “Okay, today is Zola’s day to choose,” or “It’s
Grandma E’s day to choose,” and we would rotate through the five of us
in just over a “month of Sundays”!
One Sunday, Timothy chose
Pizza Hut® - and the next week, it was Uncle Greg’s turn. Timothy
asked, “Uncle Greg…where do you want to eat? I think Pizza Hut® would
be a great choice…don’t you? Wouldn’t you like to eat at Pizza Hut®,
Uncle Greg?” We had to laugh at his “diplomatic” attempt to manipulate
the choice.
This is cute when one is five years old. It’s not
cute at all when you are our age…and we are trying to manipulate God for
what we want, rather than what He has in store for us.
We sometimes pray in specifics…as we should. But our motives are often
misguided at best…if not downright selfish. So instead of asking God to
guide our interview for a new job and to work in the hearts of those
who decide which person to hire, we say, “LORD, please help me get this
job.” We give no consideration to whether this is the place God wants
us to be, because it’s where we desire to work!
Or
we pray for God to heal us…or to fix a relationship…or to help us get a
new car or pass a particular class…or to save a loved one from dying…or
whatever is on our heart. And we never even ask God what He desires.
Because you see…that really doesn’t matter to us, quite often.
Several
weeks ago, our pastor asked us “Are you making a difference…or making a
point?” It’s a valid question for all of us. I know that learning to
ask God for His will over our own is a hard practice for
many of us to master. We are not wired to submit to the will of another
– not even to God! So we “campaign” for whatever our “Pizza Hut®”
desire is…even to the point of trying to manipulate God into doing it.
“LORD, it would be great if You could take this cancer from me…don’t You
think that I could do so many wonderful things if I wasn’t sick?!” Or,
“LORD, I really need a new house/car/job/relationship…so that I can do
even more for YOU!” Pah-lease! (insert eye-roll here!) God is not
fooled for even one second!
If we will learn to pour our hearts
out to God…and even tell Him what we want (like He doesn’t already
know!)…He will listen. But we must humbly and genuinely submit to Him
that what we really want – and need – is His will for our
lives…and we are ready to accept this and eagerly abide in whatever He
designs for us. We can stomp our 5-year-old “spiritual feet” and demand
our own way…or we can surrender to God’s will and actually make a
difference. The choice is ours…what will you decide?
©2015 Debbie Robus
No comments:
Post a Comment