1-4-2024

Good Morning All,

            James 4:3; “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

      I was talking with a six-year-old recently and this young person was telling me that they were “mad at God.”  So, I asked, “Why are you mad at God?”  The answer, “I want a pony, but God won’t make my mom and dad buy one.”  I tried to explain that it might be that God doesn’t think you are ready for a pony just yet; maybe he is telling you that there will be one when you are older.  That wasn’t the answer being sought.  I think the expectation was that I was supposed to pray for a pony as well.

    It was an amusing exchange.  It is always interesting the way that young ones think.  They always see things in concrete terms and in a manner that is completely logical to them.  While we may smile at it, we aren’t that much different.  When we pray, we often have the same thought process. “I want a pony and I want it now.”  So, when we don’t get the pony, we are mad at God.

   Too often our prayers are manipulative in nature.  It may be a prayer when we ask God to “change the other guy.”  It may be a prayer where we “explain” to God the right way to solve a situation that needs to be “fixed.”  We aren’t praying for God’s will; we are praying that our will trump God’s will.

    Sometimes our prayers are designed to impress others.  We think big words and fancy prose are the way to go.  We think that if others are impressed by what we say then certainly God will be impressed and will have to give us what we ask for no matter what it is.  Whatever our “pony” is, we want God to give it to us and right now.

    So, James speaks directly to our failure in prayer.  We do not pray in accordance with God’s will nor do we truly want God’s will to prevail.  We simply see God as an ATM machine that spews out our wishes and wants regardless of our motives or wants.  James tells us this is the reason our prayers fail; we do not have the right motive.  So, what is the right motive?  It is that God’s will be done here on earth.  It is that the kingdom of God may spread throughout the world.  It is that all may come to know the saving grace of Jesus.  It is that we may always be God’s active agents of love and peace.

    So, when you pray, pray with the right motive.  Seek God’s kingdom to advance and that we may be agents of that advance.  Pray that Jesus would come to restore his creation to perfection.

Father, too often we seek our own desires and follies; too often we want for me and what I want and not what I need or what my neighbor needs.  Forgive our hollowness and our shame.  Bring us to speak with you in that holy conversation which strengthens and affirms our faith.  Be with those who feel that you are far away because they do not see their prayers answered as they seek.  Guide them by your Spirit to return to you in humility and wonder.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret