May 8, 2006
Be Careful What You Ask For
For about two months we’ve prayed that God would lead someone to buy our house. A two-hour round trip commute each day has a way of wearing you down.
On Saturday we’ve had our most promising house buying prospect yet. A lady came to look at the house. She stopped as we were about to leave, and since she wasn’t represented by an agent, we made plans for her to come back in a few hours for a look around. During the tour, she went on and on about how much she loved the place: the location, the rooms, the paint colors, the kitchen, and the living room. She even talked a little about her mortgage situation. Those have to be good signs. Doesn’t she know she’s not supposed to seem too excited?
But then she told us that she and her husband were going through divorce mediation, and my heart sank. I’d been praying that she would be the one to buy the house, but now I can’t pray that. She doesn’t need to buy our house. She needs to reconcile with her husband. Her two little girls need that.
I realize that at this stage, the odds of reconciliation are extremely low, but I suppose it could happen, and I want my prayers to be on the side of that. Should she come to us with an offer, we’d of course consider it, but not with the same level of joy that we might otherwise have.
This scenario brought up the issue of how sometimes we have no idea what we are really asking when we pray. When we pray for something specific, rarely do we see the full ramifications of that request. What would happen if God answered our prayer precisely as we ask it?
When I send up a prayer request in faith, and it doesn’t turn out as I thought it should, could it be that God knows more about the situation than I do? Might He be just a tad smarter than me? Me thinks so!
Have you ever prayed for something specific that God didn’t answer like you wanted Him to, only to be relieved later on that He didn’t?
2 responses so far ↓
1 Nathan Smith // May 8, 2006 at 11:59 am
Andy: That is a difficult predicament. It reminds me of the time my dad asked my opinion about a court marshal situation, in which the US government was prosecuting a military officer for street preaching in Saudi Arabia. On the one hand, he broke international law. On the other, he was doing what Jesus commanded. Tough situation either way you cut it.
I admire that you have this moral dilemma over her reconcilliation. Far too many people would just go for the “easy money,” regardless of the implications.
On a lighter note, if you want to sell your house quickly, you might consider doing what Cody did with his house, and build a mini site about it:
http://dulcimer.codylindley.com/
The mini-site made it on CSS Beauty, after which it sold extremely quickly. Anyway, not trying to tell you what to do, just making a suggestion.
2 Pappy // May 9, 2006 at 12:09 am
Andy, you are a constant source of pride for your Mother and I.