Shopping List

Today we had a great sermon from a new church. It was about praying and having effective prayers. One of the first points that the pastor said was how we (myself included) give God a "shopping list" of requests. Then he went on to say that we should not do that, but instead ask God what He has planned for the requests that we bring. An example was how he and his wife prayed for healing for their daughter (who is hearing impaired). God did NOT grant that request for him. But instead, God used his daughter (who is fluent in two languages) to talk to two groups in the past few weeks, and many kids were brought to Christ or inquired more, just because of her testimony. So, God purposefully said "No" to this pastor's prayer request because He had something more in mind for her than what even the pastor could fathom. The pastor also said that we should be in dialogue with God BEFORE we ask for the prayer request. That way we can pray with a passion of what God wants, not what we want.
This all got me thinking of my own prayers. All too often, I am in a hurry and then just list of my "shopping list" to God and then say "Amen," trusting that God will answer all my prayers. But, in reality, God will sometimes say "No," and then I get disappointed and feel that maybe my faith is not strong enough. But, now I know that I need to dialogue with God (which takes time) and THEN make my prayer requests with the Kingdom in mind.
So, I left church this morning thinking, "Wow, God really talked to me today!" That would have been enough for me, but then the pastor introduced himself to Anita and I after the service. And then I KNEW that God talked to me when the pastor starting talking to us about adjusting to this culture here and how we need to embrace the things that bother us, or we will just turn negative. What amazed me was that I had never met this pastor before and he was talking to me about the exact things that I have been struggling with this past week! With big changes in culture comes big adjustments that your mind has to deal with. And, if any of you know me, patience was not a virtue that God blessed me with. So, the long waits in the lines at the stores, the slowness of life around here and other cultural changes have really been "getting to me." But today, things just didn't have their normal negative affect on me, and thing seem to be "picking up."
In conclusion, after I dialogue with God, I will then ask for the appropriate things to pray for each of you who read this. And, even if I don't know who you are, I will ask God to let me know how I can effectively pray for your specific needs. I will just listen to God, and we will see how God blesses your lives.
May God be glorified in ALL things,
Bryan