Prayer Concessions

~~~ Sirach 36:1, 4-5A, 10-17 ~~~ Psalm 79 ~~~ Mark 10:32-45 ~~~

Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

James and John had it all backwards.
They were under the illusion that Jesus
 would grant all of their requests.
We fall into this same frame of thought so many times.

We are encouraged to ask God for what we want.
But are there limits to what is acceptable to ask of God?

Can we really expect God to consent to our every whim?
We humans have a way of changing our minds
from one day to the next.

How would God know which of our requests should get priority?
What seems important today may not be an issue tomorrow.

Every day there are many opportunities to make a request of God.

I wonder if when we ask God for something we are really
 trying to convince ourselves that he really does exist.

Have you ever considered your own doubt of God's existence?
Many people try to disprove his existence...
They write books with titles like God is Dead.

Give evidence of your deeds of old...

Sometimes we just may want God to prove his existence
 by granting our prayer requests.

Somehow we want to be rewarded for our faithfulness.
We want to also dictate what the reward will be...
in the form of our answered prayers.

In reality we do know that we cannot barter with God.
Instead we must come to him with our prayer
intentions and leave them in his hands.

That is the part we struggle the most with...
leaving them in his hands.
Our solution is not always the best solution.
For some this realization is a big 'aha' moment.

Personally I have experienced more times than I can count.
So now I try to bring God my prayer intentions
 with the concession that he really does know what is best.

There are so many Blessings in just allowing God
 to be God when it comes to our prayer requests.

Ask and you will receive.
~~~Peace~~~