I remember a story that Chuck Swindoll once told. He said he was reading a letter to his congregation he had received. He recalled one family in attendance that day seemed to be captivated by the letter. He also noted that the mother in the family was not present that day.
Anyway, the letter was from a woman who had not married until she was 31 years old and had her first child when she was 32. In the letter, she said, “I married late, but I wasn’t really worried about getting married. I prayed about it. Each night I would hang a pair of men’s trousers on the bedpost of my bed and pray. ‘Lord, I trust you. I have hung these trousers on my bedpost. I am asking you to fill those trousers with a husband for me.’ When it was the right time, God did just that.”
A few weeks after reading the letter, Pastor Swindoll said the mother who had not been in attendance the day he read the letter showed up at his office. She said, “Pastor, I’m worried. I don’t know if I should be concerned or not, but for the last couple of weeks, my teenage son has been hanging a girls bikini on his bedpost before he goes to sleep.”
Expectations! True expectations! Do we have any? When we pray, do we really expect anything to happen? Now, I do believe that we must ask in accordance with God’s will when we pray. Obviously, if I ask God to bop Peter on the head because I’m mad at Peter, God is not going to answer that prayer. James 4:3 says: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly,” (amiss, out of His will). Anytime we ask selfishly, for our own desires and wishes, those prayers are likely to go unanswered, or more correctly, answered with a “No.”
Also, don’t expect to get too many answers to things you just repeat out of habit in your prayers. Jesus clearly said in Matthew 6:7: “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do.”
I know that sometimes we are not sure how to pray, or we don’t truly expect God to do what we are asking for. When that happens, we often say,” but not my will, but Thine be done.” There is a truth in that, but when Jesus originally said that phrase, he already knew what God’s will was, and he just wanted to avoid it if he could.
We are taught to have faith when we pray. That implies some expectation that God is going to answer our request. In Matthew 21:22, Jesus tells us: “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” Am I asking amiss – out of God’s will? Am I just repeating phrases so I can say, “See I prayed. I’m a good person, I said my prayer today”? Or am I asking for something without truly believing I will get it?
Maybe that woman with the pants and the teen with the bikini were on the right track – praying with true expectation!
– Just a Thought Dale Fillmore is lead pastor at New Day Church.
