Ask & Recieve

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the manner in which God operates. If I am to become more “external” with my faith- how am I to answer some of the questions I, myself, struggle with? That’s one of my biggest fears… doing more harm then good in terms of giving credibility to God. Although, I suppose that’s a bit arrogant of me- obviously God establishes His own credibility. But things like “Why do we praise God when good things happen but we can’t blame him for the bad things that occur?”. For instance- if someone overcomes cancer- we praise God for a miracle. But if they pass away, then it is not God’s doing. If we get a raise at work, we thank God for his blessings, but if we file bankruptcy, we have to accept responsibility for our poor money management. So I wonder sometimes about how God gets the credit for all of the good things, but human fallibility is blame for all things gone wrong. I'm not suggesting that God is responsible for the tragedies of the world- but here's where I struggle: His will is His will and it will be fullfilled, despite our requests. He's not going to hear our prayers and think "Oh, well I hadn't considered that- I think I'm gonna try her thing instead". So this all paves the road for more questions… “Is there really divine intervention?”, “How does God intervene without interfering with the free will that he so graciously gave to us?”, and “Given all that is in question, then what good, really, is prayer?”

What I do know is that God "IS" good and so nothing evil can come from Him. But I think that we, as Christians, get carried away in what we attribute to God. I'm not sure that God intervenes directly… at least not in the way that we often pray for. “Lord please let me get this dream job” or “God, please make this illness go away” or “Jesus- please help me find my keys!”. When I read the prayer requests- they are filled with requests like these and I can’t help but feel we are fooling ourselves. Again, does he not have a plan for each of us that has already been predetermined? I wonder if, rather, God works within us internally. The stronger our relationship is with him, the more obvious his will becomes. Free will occurs when we decide whether or not to practice obedience and follow what God has laid on our hearts. When we are obedient- a ripple effect occurs and our lives intersect with others- and THAT is how God answers prayer. MIght we fulfill the needs of one another through our obedience to God? And how amazing is that?

The scope of the concept is larger than I can fathom. That so long as we are in tune with God and paying attention to what he lays on our hearts, essentially, every decision we make could effect the lives of others and fulfill His will here on earth- and we may never even know it. He has a plan for every one and every thing. When it comes to our own trials- rather than asking God to fix it, perhaps we need to determine what it is that we need to endure- and pray for that. Patience? Trust? Understanding? Forgiveness? God will bring us through our trials by the Holy Spirit’s presence in us. He works through our hearts and souls. If we ask for his help in that manner- then we are open to fulfilling his plan for our lives. And since God is the essence of all that is good- then he only has good things planned for us… even if we can’t always see it.

(I don't ask for feedback often- but would love other's thoughts on this [not necessarily on this site, though that's fine also]. This is actually a journal entry from a year or so ago and I'm still sorting through the questions at the top. I'm wondering if I'm starting to get it, but maybe only partially. I don't argue the need for prayer- but wonder if it's not more for the purpose of building relationship and maintaining focus. The problem is that my thoughts here don't leave much room for things like healing upon prayer though- which I know alot of people would argue. I don't question the presence of miracles, I just don't know how they come in response to prayer. Surely His will doesn't change based on whether or not someone followed their heart and prayed. But scripture tells us, repeatedly, that our prayers will be answered. I guess it comes down to this: Most of our prayer requests consist of us finding the solution we think is right and then asking for it. And I just don't understand how He can answer most of those prayer requests without either A) interfering with free will or B) "changing his plan" so to speak. And here is another thought: maybe God IS responsible for certain tragedies- and our perception of what constitutes "Good" & "Bad" is simply that skewed that we actually refuse to give God credit for things we think are "bad". Are we ready to trust THAT much? Thoughts?)