Don’t Make Jesus Your Miracle-Daddy

For me…prayer has been a very elusive thing my entire life. It’s a strange, wonderful, yet enigmatic privilege that has changed me in many ways. Prayer is conversation; prayer is petitioning; prayer is thanking; prayer is whining; prayer is any means of communicating with God that you wish to put a label on.

Recently, however, is has become a deeper, more relevant, discipline. I am seeing it in a new way that is beginning to transcend all my previous understandings over the years. Prayer is a free-will choice, yet God is all-knowing and sees the beginning, middle, and end of whatever I bring to Him. This begs the question, “Why pray?”

The simple answer—which has taken me 54 years to understand—is that the matters I bring to the table certainly are by my own choosing but they may, or may not, bring me in alignment with God’s purpose. That ”alignment” is the key to my prayers these days. No longer am I concerned about whether I’m praying correctly or for the right things…God wants my life to be aligned with His plan and purpose. When I pray and calibrate myself to that truth…then the purpose of prayer becomes more clear.

For many years my prayers were directed towards God like a genie in a bottle. Make this happen; let me acquire that; allow this, that and the other thing to happen. In the name of Jesus I asked for things and completely justified it by using scripture...specifically James 4, “You do not have because you do not ask God.” NIV

What I continually failed to do was to keep reading as the very next verse states, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

In other words, we will receive anything we ask for as long as it is aligned with God’s plan. We may not understand His answer; it may even seem calloused or illogical. Still...He is in complete control, omniscient and omnipotent.

I’ve wanted so desperately to have a “miracle-daddy” to take care of all my wants and desires. That’s simply my human nature. My renewed life through Christ, however, begs to be in alignment and closer to my God and Savior.

So...does prayer really change things? Absolutely! What it most often changes is the person praying. The circumstances may or may not change but that’s really the point here. Prayer changes our attitude, our perspective, our priorities...and, most importantly, our relationship with God.

That’s what prayer is all about; what relationship is all about; what finding our place in this world is all about. Once we begin to realize that our actions do not cause a reaction from God, but simply brings us closer--or farther apart--then we will find true peace in whatever we ask of Him...regardless of the answer.

Greg Morton
Copyright © March 1, 2014

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