Careful What You Wish For

*This post is something I've had sitting in my drafts for a long time. I wanted to come back to revise it, as I think it's relatively thought-provoking. Thanks!

I will be honest; I have enough of my Southern Baptist mother in me, meaning that I am weary of basically everything that might have some dark energy. Now, that does not mean I am entirely anti-Harry Potter or anything; rather, I am just cautiously aware. For example, if I see a Ouija board come out in a movie, I am immediately turning it off. I do NOT mess with that, and I WILL be protecting my mind. To put it simply, I take a lot of things seriously. 

I understand that things with spiritual weight of any kind should not be taken lightly, worship being one of those things. Take, for example, some lyrics from two popular worship songs: "If the cross brings transformation, I'll be crucified with You," and "I want to be tried by fire, purified." 

Maybe I should be ashamed to admit this, but I get intimidated by these lyrics because I know my words matter. The thing is, I've seen prayer work in my own life enough to know it does. I know very well that God hears me and that, if what I pray is in His will, then I am going to see it. So I should, then, not take my prayers lightly. I know that if I pray for God to remove someone from my life that doesn't belong there, He will do it. If I pray for Him to break my heart for what breaks His, I can be sure there will be heartbreak involved. 

So, then, if I pray that the Lord will refine me and test me, I believe He will. Will it be for my good? Yes. Will it be hard and painful? Yes. However, that is the beauty of praying bold prayers, isn't it? Knowing that He hears me. 

Our church pastor explained two things in a way that really turned on a lightbulb in my head. He said, "If all of your prayers from this past week came to fruition, what would change?" Would your neighbors come to know Christ? Would our governing officials turn to the Lord? Or would we simply be nourished by the breakfast we prayed over in a hurry? Next, he explained that God is sovereign and good. So why pray? Well, because God is sovereign and good, He heeds the prayers of His people. Our prayers are not merely empty wishes to God, and I've seen that time and time again in my own life. 

I'm in a weird place right now. Not bad. Weird. The future career I'm trying to build looks unlike what I expected, my health is not exactly dependable, and I'm single at the age when my brother and his wife were already engaged. So there is this very unsettled feeling in me that is probably normal, but equally difficult to handle. Am I falling behind? Am I doing enough? What am I doing wrong? I am so hungry to be doing something in life that really seems to matter, and I don't think I'm there yet. 

We Christians tend to miss the easy solution most of the time, though. We'd love to follow a five-step plan to fix our lives or take some magic pill to achieve our dreams. While that would be pretty handy, we can be sure those things aren't really our solutions. For some reason, we can know the answer to our problem lies with our God, and yet, we so often avoid bringing ourselves to His feet. One thing we can know for a fact is that there is not a single thing that wouldn't be better without covering it in more prayer. 

Take, as one final thought, the lyrics to a truly beautiful hymn, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus:"

"O what peace we often forfeit

O what needless pain we bear

All because we do not carry

Everything to God in prayer."