Do we pray for guidance or for affirmation?
In a recent sermon, our pastor made the comment, that often when we pray, we don’t really want God’s guidance or even for God to show us His will for us; he said what we really want is God’s affirmation. We want Him to bless what we are already doing.
That notion stuck with me for days.
It reminded me of true friendship. Our closest friends are never afraid to tell us the truth. If we are on the wrong path, they are not afraid to speak hard truth to us. They do it in a loving way, but they don’t blindly agree with us simply because they don’t want to make us angry or hurt our feelings.
They can do it because they love us and they want what’s best for us. Those friendships are precious and if we’re honest, we will admit that they are rare too.
It shouldn’t surprise me that our strongest human relationships would be a close image of what our relationship with God is supposed to be. After all, our loving one another was a call to us from Jesus, Himself.
But, that also got me to thinking about how we tend to pray. Do we approach God with wide open hearts, eager for Him to light the next step of His plan for our lives, and wide open ears for the whisper of His voice, or do we approach Him with a to-do list of all the things we think we need and all of the situations and circumstances we feel need changing?
Do we have a tendency to talk or to listen?
Do we ask Him to show us His will and patiently wait, or do we do what we want to do and ask Him to bless our plans?
Do we ultimately seek guidance or affirmation?
Those questions can be difficult to ask ourselves and maybe even more difficult to answer. Yet, if we truly believe that He loves us and wants our highest good, we have to be willing to ask Him to reveal His plans and let go of our own. We have to wait for direction before we take off down the road.
We also have to be open to the possibility that we might not be on the right road and need to choose another path. He will let us know where we need to be if we are quiet and still.
A sermon reminded me that, prayer involves both talking and listening. Perhaps you needed reminding too.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂