God's line must be busy

Here's a secret between you and me: I don't pray for the same things I used to.

When I was a kid I prayed long and hard for a pony but now that my legs would drag the ground if I tried to ride one, having a pony doesn't seem quite so important. What I find myself praying for now is wisdom to know and the courage to follow God's will.

During a phone call with Brent Sears earlier this week, Brent pointed out that our approach to seeking God's will tends to first look for God's approval to start reaching for the things we want, sort of like dropping hints and hoping he'll grant our wish ... without first stopping to consider whether what we're asking for will honor him ... or vainly glorify ourselves.

We should be putting ourselves aside - always - and seeking God's will first.

Sure would be great if God had a toll-free 800 Help Line we could call for tech support though, wouldn't it?

But if we had that spiritual easy button we'd turn into robots running our lives in place, never going anywhere or accomplishing anything, ineffective believer-adolescents deprived of the opportunity to live life, mature and grow in faith ... and faith is the only thing that ultimately brings us closer to God.

Could be that's why looking for shortcuts leaves us thinking, God's not answering the phone.

Could also be that's why, after getting the thing we so badly wanted, we end up feeling miserable, trapped or deceived.

Still it's great fun throwing pity-parties in the ashes of our personal plans, and forget that we first chose to set God aside before we started chasing after rainbows.

What's really amazing is that we'll still look at the broken pieces of what we wanted, and spend so much time wondering, "How did that happen?"