Are You Guilty Of Safe Prayers?

Prayer is essential to me. I love, love, love talking to God. However, lately, God has been talking to me, convicting me of my prayer life.

This morning as I was praying, this question was nagging at me, haunting me as though God were asking, “Are you guilty of praying “safe” prayers?”

I pray “God, bless my children…

but I don’t pray that God would keep them from evil.

I pray for God to increase my faith…

but I don’t want him to take my job.

I pray for God to show me ways to witness…

but I don’t want him to ask me to do something awkward.

I ask for healing…

but rarely consider that the illness might be making me more like him.

Yes, I realize I often want safe answers to prayers. I want sunshine and rose gardens and warm fuzzies. But I also recognize that, as Christians, what we need to grow is not the safe prayers but the risky ones. The ones that may involve loss and suffering, standing alone.

Lord, you are God of safe and risky prayers. Your Goal is for us to be like you, not necessarily safe.

Comments

Thank You God For Turning Our Ashes into Beauty

There are tragedy and sadness in everyone's life, No one is exempt. Yet, in the midst of the hurt and pain, God is there. He takes the things that hurt us and make us sad and turns them into things are beautiful. The death of my mother was a tragedy to my dad. However, because of that tragedy, my dad began to see his need for God. In his brokenness, he found a God that could make him whole. God turned his ashes into beauty. My dad, in turn, taught me to love God. I am blessed to know God as my savior because of my dad. God also blessed me with a lovely step-mom Life is harsh at times, and many things are sad, Yet, if we let him, he will take our ashes and make them into a work of art. He delights in making the ash heaps of our life beautiful. When we are broken, God is near, and where there is sorrow, he will turn it into dancing. Thank you, God, F...

Doctors and Taxes

Tonight, I’m doing something I absolutely hate. My husband and I are working on a budget. I imagine that most of you feel the same way. It’ kind of like taxes and doctors, we dislike them and breathe a sigh of relief when they are done. Truth be told; we really don’t enjoy working on a budget at all. Yet it is one of the necessary components in knowing exactly how much you have and what you can spend. If indeed we are responsible to God for how we handle the resources that God has given us, then we need a clear picture. One piece of the puzzle that can bring the whole puzzle into focus is a budget. It allows you to see and compare what you spend with what you have. Sometimes as I’ve done a budget and looked at what I saw, I could see that the problem was little things that add up. I realized that the problem was that I forgot the advice I had been given long ago, little things add up. As we do a budget, we often see little things th...

Rest For Your Soul

Tonight was such a beautiful sunny night that I decided to go for a walk and enjoy the warm summer sun before another wave of rain hits. As I cranked up my music and headed out. I could not help but praise God for the area in which I live. I, quite literally, live 5 minutes from a small town. If I want to walk, I can walk down deserted country roads without driving at all. Yes, I am incredibly blessed. I saw baby bunnies eating grass by the edge of the road and talked with the most friendly Jersey cows. They always walk over to the edge of the fence as I walk by nodding their heads in greeting. There was a deer, in a hurry to catch up with his “deer” friends I suppose. There were daisies and buttercups, apple trees by the edge of the road and a creek that floods at least once during the spring. I also occasionally see a very friendly donkey and a few horses who always come to the edge of the fence hoping I have sugar for...

Inspirations

Search This Blog