Apr 15 - "Be Careful of What You Ask For"

“So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.’ The Jews took up stones again to stone him.” --- John 10:19-42

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Are there times when we pray for something, ask God to deliver or provide, and yet when the answer is given to us, we reject it?

When I read through different parts of the Gospels and see times where Jesus is interacting with the Jewish leaders, I really think there were many who wanted desperately to believe the Jesus was the Messiah. There are many times when they ask Him these direct questions; “Are you Him?!?”. But oddly enough, when He does given them a straight answer, they flat out reject it.

What’s beautiful about all of these interactions, is that Jesus had the power to absolutely prove to them that He was the Messiah, but He does not. He could have waved His hand, swooped them all to Heaven to be in the presence of God and every servant who had come before…Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…all who would have testified that Jesus was the Son of God. They would have seen, without any doubt, that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. But He doesn’t do this. He relies on them to have faith, to accept His answers and believe. But, as we see, they do not.

I am sure many of you have heard the story/joke about the man on the rooftop in the flood.

A man’s house has been surrounded by flood waters and he climbs on the roof to escape. He prays to God, “Lord, I know you are my God and you will rescue me from this flood. Please, Lord, deliver me from this position of certain death.” In few minutes, a boat with his friends come by and they say, “Get in, the waters are rising fast!”. The man says, “No thanks, I am waiting for God to rescue me.” The waters continued to rise until he has to stand on his chimney.

Shortly thereafter, a police helicopter comes hovering over him. The office with a bullhorn shouts down, “We are lowering a rope to you so you can get off your roof before the waters overtake you. Grab the rope!”. The man says, “No thanks, I am waiting for God to rescue me.” Not long after that, the waters rise further, overtaking the man. He is swept away and drowns.

Moments later, he is standing with God in heaven. He asks God, “Lord, I believed in you. I waited on you to rescue me. Why did you let me die and not save me?!?”.

God said to the man, “I sent a boat and a helicopter. What else did you want me to do?!?”

If I am being honest with myself, there are many times in my life when I am the man on the roof. Sometimes, God sends me answers to my prayers and I don’t recognize them for what they are. But equally as often, I say prayers that maybe I don’t want to be answered. Maybe, when the answer comes, I am not willing to accept it and take the action which the answer is delivering to me.

When I pray to God, “Lord, I want to do Your work in the world. I want to serve You. Show me, Heavenly Father, what You would have me do to show the light of Christ to others. Help me know what way I can serve You”. This is a “dangerous” prayer. What if God’s answer is, “I want you to quit your job, sell all of your worldly possessions and move to China to preach the Good News and build up My followers in a country where my Gospel is suppressed and persecuted.” What would I do? Similarly, when I pray for an answer for how I should address a particular situation at work or with my family, and the answer comes, but it will be a hard or painful thing, will I accept the answer to this prayer?

So, be careful of what you ask for. Do you really want God to answer your prayer? Are you prepared to act on what He asks you to do in its fulfillment? When we pray, we must also ask for God to give us the strength and the desire to follow His will. He will not give us more than we can handle, but when we ask Him to deliver, we must also be prepared to recognize and accept it.