Good morning…
A friend sent me these encouraging words from the left page in her book. “You’re stepping into a week of answered prayers.”
What a marvelous perspective to take on our everyday lives. “God is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t worry” (Deuteronomy 31:8, MSG).
This truth reminds me of a text string I shared with another friend, midweek. She wrote: “I am sorry your parents can’t attend your son’s wedding this weekend. I had prayed hard for your mom’s recovery so she could attend. This sounds too familiar, like when I prayed hard for my mom to attend my own wedding and it didn’t happen. Reading your blog about your parents missing the celebration, it made me so sad. I know it sounds bad, but I feel like God gives me the opposite of what I prayed for.”
Quickly I responded: “Good morning. Prayer is such a mysterious thing. My biggest prayer for my parents was that they make a wise decision about traveling to the wedding. I really had no idea what would be best, but I knew God knew. God made the right decision abundantly clear as my mom wakes up in the hospital this morning. She is clearly where she needs to be. And I think God somehow paved that way. So I don’t think God did the opposite of my prayers. I think he did precisely what was best for my mom and her well being. What are your thoughts about seeing prayer from this perspective?”
“Oh Sue, you always know what to say to calm my confused mind,” she replied. “After all these years, I am apparently still in the ‘I want what I ask for NOW’ group.”
“Aren’t we all?” I texted back.
We all are in the “I want what I ask for NOW” group. That’s the epicenter of our lives. We want what we ask for, and we want it NOW. This is where all honest relationship with God begins. We have a need. God has the power. We match them up and make our demands. I am so grateful this is not where our prayers stay or end. Prayer, in part, is about expanding our personal will into the wider will of God through a dynamic daily dialogue, a back-and-forth interactive process of surrender into G0d’s so much more.
I guess prayer has become for me a bit more like asking open-ended questions. In regards to my parents and their attendance at our son’s wedding, my prayer became, “Please God, make this hard decision clear.” On the day they needed to make the final decision, my mother ended up in the hospital, where she remains now. Clear. It became clear. The hospital in Ohio not the wedding in Charleston, South Caroline, this is exactly where my dear mom needs to be.
Open-ended prayers allow space for God to move in life-giving ways. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and My ways are not your ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. The rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there without giving water to the earth. This makes plants grow on the earth, and gives seeds to the planter and bread to the eater” (Isaiah 55:8-10, NLV).
God rains down exactly what we need for abundant life to grow. Might open-ended prayer be the ongoing process of us coming to peaceful rest with the higher thoughts and ways of God? Just like each of you, my parents and our family, our son and our new daughter, we are all stepping into a week of answered prayers. This is the day (and the week) the Lord has made; let’s rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24, ESV).
…Sue…
