These past few days I’ve been reading Craig Groeschel’s book The Christian Atheist: When You Believe in God But Live as if He Doesn’t Exist
A pastor once asked his church to pray that God would shut down a neighborhood bar. The whole church gathered for an evening prayer meeting, pleading with God to rid the neighborhood of the evils of this bar. A few weeks later, lightning struck the bar and it burned it to the ground.
Having heard about the church’s prayer crusade, the bar owner promptly sued the church. When the court date finally arrived, the bar owner passionately argued that God struck his bar with lightning because of the church members’ prayers. The pastor backtracked, brushing off the accusations. He admitted the church prayed, but he also affirmed that no one in his congregation really expected anything to happen.
The judge leaned back in his chair, a mix of amusement and perplexity on his face. Finally he spoke: “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Right in front of me is a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and a pastor who doesn’t.” (Groeschel, Craig, 2010. The Christian Atheist. Grand Rapids:Zondervan)
This story is quite an eye-opener for me. I’ll have to admit, there are several times I pray expecting nothing to happen. I’ve found myself praying for things that I really don’t think God will come through on. It’s not that I don’t believe God can fulfill these requests, it’s that I just don’t think He will. I don’t know which is worse, but I can tell you I am not so thrilled with my response.
Nate, our 10-year-old, when he asks for things he almost always starts his question with “Why can’t we…”. As a parent that drives me crazy. Let me clarify something here. It’s not that he has already asked for something and we’ve said no so he asking why. He’s asking why we can’t do something before he’s even asked the first time for it. I always tell him he needs to change the way he asks for things because usually the way he asks them makes me want to say no, even if I would have said yes.
Whoa. Hold it right there. Let me re-read that last paragraph.
[I'm serious, don't read any more until I'm done.]
[Ok. Done. Carry on.]
Well, don’t they say (whoever “they” are) that the things that drive you nuts about your kids are usually the traits they got from you? If nobody has, let me be the first:
The traits that your kids have that drive you the most crazy are in fact traits they inherited from you.
Could it be our Heavenly Father feels the same way? Could it be that God is less inclined to answer some of our prayers the way we want because we already are thinking He won’t?
Now there are times I give Nate what he’s asking for despite the way he asks. I’m sure God does to.
Is there something you’ve been praying for that you really don’t think God will come through on?
