Prayer Gone Wrong

You’ve heard the saying, “Be careful what you wish pray for because you just might get it.”

Last summer my stepdad told me that when they went to Carolina for the NASCAR race they were taking me with them because I needed a break away from the kids. When he tells you something there is no arguing–this man is a manager in the pits of our local Steel Mill. I knew he would not understand that I didn’t want to go: I don’t like NASCAR, I hate gambling, I am uncomfortable around drinking, and I LOVE being around my family. Instead of trying to explain I prayed. I asked the Lord that He would intervene so it would be out of the question, and He did. I have spent the last 3 months recupperating after a knee injury, not to mention getting over a serious illness and spinal headaches. When they went this last weekend I stayed home. Praise the Lord–but at what cost?

For some time my husband has been struggling with his eating and sleeping habits. He is a computer programmer by profession and a geek by nature–healthy eating, sleeping, and excercise do not come naturally for him. He has been praying that the Lord would help him lose weight and keep it off, that his sleep would get under control, and that he would get back in shape (a broken rib last summer and the summer before has kept him from being as active as he would like.) This last week he got very sick. He couldn’t eat without being in pain. Now we have learned that he has colitis and gall stones and will likely continue to have occasional attacks of this nature. This means he will have to watch his diet and see what triggers it. It means that he needs to maintain a more healthy lifestyle to keep the pain at bay. He is definitely losing weight already, and from what we have learned, he will probably continue to for some time as he figures out what he can and cannot eat. Praise the Lord that he is gaining self control in this area–but at what cost?

Over the last 10 years the Lord has been training me to pray about everything and worry about nothing. I knew that He always answered and His answers are always good, but it hadn’t occurred to me how often He uses our prayers to work on our sin areas. For me it is my attitude towards my stepdad. We don’t get each other and I struggle not to look down on him because he sees things differently (sports vs books, hunting vs computers). I am sure that I would not have been a great witness had I gone with them because my attitude was in the way. It still is and I am working on it.

Each of us has an area in which we struggle and the Lord will use our prayers to help us overcome those struggles. But be careful what you ask for, because God has a great sense of humor and LOVEs to give good gifts.

11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:11

What have you prayed for lately? How have your prayers gone awry? What has He taught you lately?

Lord, thank you for your awesome sense of humor, for your willingness to take us at our word and use what we ask to grow us beyond anything we could imagine. Lord help us to see the good in the gifts You give.

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