When God Hears My Prayer

Nothing like a storm in life to make you pray. Unless, of course, it is something we want so badly that it seems everything will go wrong if we don't get it. Like custody of the kids, a job, a job that's actually a career with better pay, that special relationship...you know what I am saying. I could go on and on.

There are some answers to pray that are just sheer blessings--they hurt no one. Those are the healings from disease, the child coming home to the Father, the addict being released from bondage. But then there are those other prayers, when my much-sought for answer brings grief and disappointment to someone else. Like when it DOES rain for my vegetable garden, but ruins an outdoor reception for someone's wedding. Or bigger than that. When my friend gets custody of the children, another parent who loves them equally and is not a villain is crushed to the heart. When I get the job and they walk away feeling inadequate and insecure and wonder, "Why not me?" When that person chooses me, and another wonderful person's desires are squashed--again. Do I get so caught up in my rejoicing that I forget my joy is not the condition of everyone, based on my answer?

I've thought about that for years. There are the clear and obvious answers to prayer (at least from our human vantage point) that evil should be overthrown. Clearly that is God's will. Jesus taught us to pray, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." But it is so easy for me to assume that my desires are God's Will. When things work out as I hope and pray, it is easy to say and post to the world, "God is good!" On the days when someone else seems to have won the battle, it is just as easy to assume God is NOT good, he is not hearing me, and evil is winning.

That's the big deal with trust. Believing in a great, good, and generous God doesn't mean I will always get my way, or things will always be answered as I hope. It is knowing God is the great, good, and generous Father of us all---and he is that when my answers are what I dreamed, and when they are not. I know he is working out his will. And his will is exactly what I would chose if I had all the information he does.

That's the big deal with lack of self-centeredness, thinking like Jesus. I can rejoice with those who get what I wanted because I trust God to care for me perfectly. I can feel compassion for those who desperately wanted what I received instead.

That's the way I want to pray. I am working on it. By the way, that check I prayed for was NOT in the mail yesterday. God is good anyway.