Prayers of Petition

Does God take requests?

Its been discussed a thousand times. We even studied it this year in Theology with the good Mr. Cole, and officially the answer is yes. But we are also taught that cannot allow for us to have everything we pray for because our desires are imperfect. But this can be frustrating. What is the use in praying if God is going to do whatever he wants with our lives anyway? I'm going to share my experience with prayer.

As a kid I heard something that stuck with me or awhile. It was something that my mother had heard in church and later passed to me. It was this: "God always gives you what you want, but in a different and unexpected way." And honestly, I can remember being thrilled by this news. Being lower school student at the time all I heard was "God always gives you what you want." But unfortunately for me I soon found out that I could not make new possessions materialize out of thin air or banish my enemies with a simple request to my God. It doesn't work like that. In fact, thank God it doesn't because I certainly requested things that I now regret ever requesting. And that is kind of the point I'm getting at. In a way, we are all still little kids. None of us truly understand exactly how this world works or what is right one hundred percent of the time. Knowing that, we then realize that having all of our requests granted would mean disaster. Once we realize this, we can change our attitudes toward God's decisions to a very positive one. We can realize that God is the ultimate truth, and we can appreciate the fact that he is the final authority on what does and does not come to pass.