Hope you all had a super weekend! I did...I took Emily to Panther Creek State Park in Morristown, Tennessee for her birthday (Saturday was her "exact" birthday, which was cool). We hiked to the exact spot overlooking Cherokee Lake where I asked her to marry me 11 years ago. (The pic is from the Internet--just a representative shot!)
It was a great day! We went to Panther Creek quite a bit when we were students at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City. Of course, with Emily being pregnant, it was an interesting 2-mile hike in the heat, but we took plenty of water and everything was fine... It was beautiful and everything is a healthy green!
After changing into something a little nicer, we ate supper at El Sazon, our favorite Mexican restaurant while we were in college. (After 10 years of travel, I must say that nothing has beaten Campestre in Princeton, WV. It's the bomb! Cheap, wonderful food, great service, a nice new restaurant, and clean bathrooms! What more can you ask for? And in Southern West Virginia, no less!)
So, it was a good day. I hope your day was as nice as ours.
Today, I wanted to share a little about my "prayer philosophy." There are about as many ideas about prayer as there are well-meaning Christian folks. (That's alot!) My ideas about prayer used to be pretty simple: God is perfect and unchanging, so prayer doesn't change God, it just helps us to get "on the same page" with Him and is an opportunity to connect with God and worship Him.
Since Emily's been pregnant, though, I think I understand the depth of meaning in some biblical passages on prayer a little better. Don't worry, I haven't changed my mind on God's perfection or unchangableness, I believed I've just gained a greater appreciation for and a greater understanding of the biblical concept of prayer. (And, In case you haven't noticed, I'm always learning about more about both the Bible and God's nature... We all should be!)
When Jesus speaks in Luke 11, He is speaking for the Father (as He always does). As we talked about in an earlier post, God owns it all. The Luke 11 passage is obviously teaching that we are to be persistent in our prayers, and to ask God for good stuff--even if it's just stuff that we perceive is good in our imperfect humanity. God is "omni-sapient" (all-wise) and it's not a problem at all for Him to decide what we should have, and what is not so great for us to get our hands on. (See "Adam and Eve" for an idea of a seemingly-good thing that wasn't so good at all.)
As a father-to-be, I can far more easily see the comparison between earthly fathers and our Heavenly Father. Each is in a setting where they are able to offer wonderful things to their children. In God's case, the supply of blessings is unlimited! (In my case, not so much, but I can afford candy and some cool toys! Transformers action figures, anyone?)
However, each father also desires for their children to do the following (Disclaimer: this is my own list, you won't find it in any Bible passage, but I think you'll find it useful.):
- 1) really figure out what they want by themselves or with the help of others as a process of becoming more mature
- 2) think seriously about whether they really want it and if they're pretty sure it's a good thing to have
- 3) realize who has the goods and the power to provide them
- 4) actually humble themselves before their provider and honor them by asking for what they want
- 5) trust their provider (who has greater wisdom than they do) to judge the reasonableness of the request,
- 6) appreciate the decision that their parent/our Heavenly Father makes in the matter, and be willing to have a good attitude regardless of the decision.
So, feel free to email me if you want to continue it at kevin@ridgechurchknoxville.com or call me at 865.223.5851. Or, we can do coffee someplace! :)
1 comment:
Good post. Good luck on your journey.
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