Silly Prayers

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.  Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!     Matthew 7:7-11 ESV

I went for a little run this morning, finally!  I've been nursing a bit of a knee injury for the past month and a half, making running a bit uncomfortable and ill-advised.  Which is not to say that I haven't made a couple of attempts to run prior to today, but today's run left me hopeful...

I intended to write this post a few weeks ago, but I guess the Lord knew that I was still lacking the understanding to complete it, so I found myself busy with other things.

Even now, I'm hesitant to write because I still feel a little silly, so I suspect this is a lesson I'll keep repeating.  But let me tell you a story anyway.

Our story begins with a "silly" prayer.  

I was driving down the road a couple of Saturdays ago, heading home after a couple of long days at work, making a list in my head of the things I needed/wanted to do when I arrived.  A "bonus visit" with my son and his family was fast approaching, as was Thanksgiving, and there were many things I wanted to do to get ready.

On my to-do list was trying to find boots for my grandson, which jogged my memory that I wanted to stop and check the Beall's Outlet in the town I was approaching.  And this is where the prayer began: "Lord, You know I've been wanting to find those boots for Espen.  If You could just-"

That's where I paused.  What was I really asking for here?  What did I expect?  Was God going to just stick a pair of size 1 cowboy boots on the shelf for me to pick up?  Every store I'd been to had long since liquidated their small stash of the boots, and the town I was headed for would certainly have been one of the first to sell out, given the demographic there.  And so began the argument in my head:

"You can't ask God to magically put cowboy boots on the shelf at that store!"

"Of course He COULD put boots there, but I don't really think that's how God works."

"What can I ACTUALLY ask for that wouldn't be so ridiculous?"

"Should I even bother to stop since I know those boots are long gone from Inverness?"

"But I won't know if I don't at least try.  It's on the way, and, after all, I did visit ALL of the stores near home."

I think the prayer I finally landed on was something to the effect of, "Lord, I don't even know what I'm asking for here, but I sure would like to get those boots for my Buddy."  That was all.  And on I drove.

I almost missed the turn to the shopping center.  Actually, I turned into the wrong one.  As I navigated my way toward the right lot, I almost decided to just skip it.  But I figured as long as I was that close, I may as well go in.

You will probably not be nearly as surprised as I was that there in the Beall's Outlet in Inverness, Florida were the exact boots in the exact size I was looking for!  I snatched them up and headed for the checkout with a ridiculous (I'm sure) grin on my face.  As the lady rung up my purchase she said, "You have a $5 reward available.  Do you want to use it?"  I rarely shop at Beall's, and I couldn't possibly have spent enough to have earned any sort of discount, but I accepted it as a blessing of course.

As I walked back to my car, still grinning that ridiculous grin, all I should have been thinking was how good my God is!  But truthfully?  I was thinking, "I wonder if people in Inverness don't shop at their Beall's?"  "How weird is it that in a town with a decent population of wonderful Florida rednecks there would still be boys' cowboy boots available when they were all sold out in the city?"

But, as I got back on the road for my four-hour drive home, I meditated on the amazing way that my good God cares for me.  He answered a prayer that I didn't feel like I had the right to pray.  People are suffering from terrible illness; others are mourning lost loved ones; many are hurting and troubled.  And there's Susan, praying for boots!  

In my mind, I believed that God must have rolled His eyes when I started that silly prayer.

But that's not what happened.

I suspect that what really leaves God shaking His head at me is not that I sometimes pray for silly things.  I think He shakes His head that I DON'T.   He's told me in His Word that I can ask - for ANYTHING!  But I'm here thinking He's busy taking care of important stuff, and I don't want to "bother" Him.

Which brings me back to my morning run...

After weeks of resting my knee, bemoaning the fact that I wanted to go for a run but shouldn't, after ordering a knee brace on Amazon, after reading articles online trying to determine the nature of my injury, after wondering how much a doctor visit to get it properly checked might cost, after thinking "I really should get some insurance," after everything else - it finally occurred to me to pray about it.  

Now, it's not as if I haven't been praying.  I've been praying about lots of things, some very serious things and some less urgent matters. 

So last week, I finally prayed that God would heal my knee.  It was that simple.  My knee hurt a little less that day.  It hurt even less the following day.  And today I went for a short run, not at all fast, but it was a run.  And my knee felt as good after the run as it did before the run.  The rest of my body loudly pointed out that I haven't run in a few weeks and that I should ease back into things, but the knee did great. 

So here's what I'm maybe finally starting to understand: God controls the universe.  All of it!  

You probably already knew that.  I did.  Well, I thought I did.  I mean, I DO.  But clearly I've missed the ramifications.

God controls it all.

He controls the muscles and bones and joints in my body.  If something is messed up, He's aware, and He's more than able to fix it.  He could have fixed that knee at any point, but He decided to wait for me to ask.

He also controls all of the matter in the universe, which means that - odd as it may seem - He controls store inventory.  So whether He'd kept those boots hidden in a stockroom to be discovered and placed on the rack just in time for me to find them, whether He miraculously added a pair of boots to the inventory as I was driving that Saturday morning, or even if He just delayed any other shoppers looking for little boys size 1 cowboy boots from wandering into the Beall's Outlet in Inverness - however He did it, He did it!

Now, I'm not suggesting that you should prioritize praying about your shopping list.  

What I AM suggesting is that when we fail to talk to God about the little details of life, we miss opportunities to see Him work.  

If something matters to you, it matters to God.  He may not always say yes, but often He does, if we will just ask.  As much as I love to give good gifts (even frivolous, unnecessary gifts) to my kids and grandkids, my Heavenly Father loves to give good gifts to His children, including me.

So can I encourage you today - just ask.  Ask God for whatever it is that's on your mind.  He already knows what you want.  He might not say yes, but He might.  He loves you and He wants good things for you.

Whatever the outcome, if you've prayed about it, you can rest assured you've got His answer on the matter.  So even if the answer was no, at least you'll have some direction.

And it just might be a YES!

...Just a thought...