Why Small Thinking is Unbelief

Recently I’ve started praying for God’s best.  It has played out in answers I like and answers I didn’t.  For instance, one day I prayed for God’s best for us as we traveled.  One answer was that we miraculously made the connection with the last train of the night to our destination with only a minute to spare.  The same prayer was answered when we finally found a train car with two seats together in economy.  But the seats were behind a group of five drunks singing and talking loudly non-stop for two hours!  We were tired from 12 hours of travel and would have appreciated some peace and quiet.  How could these rowdy drunks be God’s best for us?  Maybe part of the answer was to see close-up a small dose of the real world.  I live in a bubble.  My friends and family don’t get drunk and make fools of themselves in public places.  I needed to be reminded that there’s a world of hurting people out there that need compassion and guidance.  Did they have any idea there might be a better way to live?  Did they ever think about their example to their young sons who were with them?  What about their wives?

Disclaimer:  This blog is wonky!  It has come to my attention that things aren’t as they should be on this blog site.  My skilled and patient webmaster and I are at work to remedy a technical issue that has reared its ugly head due to an auto update that broke this site.  Next week’s blog should look better.

“Then he [Elisha, the prophet of God] commanded, “Open that eastern window,” and he [the king of Israel] opened it. Then he said, “Shoot!” So he shot an arrow. Elisha proclaimed, “This is the Lord’s arrow, an arrow of victory over Aram, for you will completely conquer the Arameans at Aphek.”

Then he said, “Now pick up the other arrows and strike them against the ground.” So the king picked them up and struck the ground three times.  But the man of God was angry with him. “You should have struck the ground five or six times!” he exclaimed. “Then you would have beaten Aram until it was entirely destroyed. Now you will be victorious only three times.” “ 2 Kings 13:17-19

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”  Ephesians 3:20

If we believe in a great God, why aren’t we asking for great things?  I think it boils down to two errors in our thinking.  God isn’t able or he isn’t willing.  Either God wants to answer us, but isn’t powerful enough to grant our requests, or he is able to answer, but isn’t willing.  These are the assumptions that prevent us from asking.  These wrong thoughts are rooted in unbelief.  The God of the Bible shows us repeatedly that he is able and he is willing.  It takes faith to ask, and to keep on asking when the answer doesn’t come immediately.

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

 “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?  Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not!  So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.  Matthew 7:7-11

We tend to believe that only health and prosperity are good for us.  So that’s what we ask for.  Adversity is to be avoided at all costs.  So we set our hearts on being delivered from all our troubles.  But seeing God bring good out of bad things in our lives is a privilege and builds our faith.  We have to be willing to accept the hard things and trust God to use them for good for us.

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” Genesis 50:20  Joseph was talking to his brothers about their traitorous and cruel behavior toward him years earlier when he was a teenager.

“I’m rich.”  Since childhood I’ve had money fears.  My single mother struggled to earn enough money to cover our bare minimum living expenses.  I worried whether we would have enough money for the rent.  I worked hard to put myself thru college and worried how I would pay for my last year when I couldn’t work during the summer due to doing three months of practical field experience required for graduation.  I married the weekend after college graduation, and we decided I would be a stay-at-home mom when the children were born.  I worried how we would make it financially. Later, we did a ten year stint in a third world country where we lived on donations given to a non-profit.  These things are not the ingredients in a recipe for wealth.  Yet, here we are living comfortably in our own home with everything we need.  Yes, we are rich!  We know the Source of these blessings and thank him daily.  So our prayers aren’t always, ‘Please give me.”  Often they are, “Thank you.”  PS. I still have to fight worry, but I’m growing in faith!

I believe it honors God when we ask for big things, as long as our asking meets two guidelines.  We should be asking for things that will make God be highly thought of when he answers.  In other words, we’re not asking for selfish reasons to get things that only we will benefit from. Instead, we should want God’s power and love to be displayed for us and others to see.   

“… you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”  James 4:2-3

The second guideline is that we must ask with the qualifier, ‘if it’s your will’.  We should want only what God wants.  If his will and ours are at odds, we must want his will the most.  Jesus is our example in this kind of praying.  Being a human being, (yes, he was also God),  he wanted to avoid the horrendous suffering ahead of him.  And so he asked his Heavenly Father to spare him.  Yet he deferred to the Father and submitted to his will as the highest good.

“… [Jesus] bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”  Matthew 26:39

We often hear the slogan, “Dream Big”.  I’d like to add this slogan, “Pray Big”.