"Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask."
Reading that verse, I was struck with how much that probably resembles our own attitudes to prayer. We may be more flowery in our language or pious in our tone, but if we cut to the core of what our prayers are about, I wonder how often they boil down to, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask."
Obviously, what they ask is all about them:
"'What do you want me to do for you?'" he asked. They replied, "'Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.'"
By this point, James and John had been with Jesus day in and day out for a very long time. They were not only disciples, but part of his inner circle. And yet they just didn't get it. They were still looking out for themselves. They wanted to use Jesus to get their own glory. It's crazy, but perhaps we should look in the mirror and see if we aren't doing the exact same thing.
Do you treat God like your own cosmic vending machine? Punch in the goodie you want and wait for it to pop out. Do you treat God like Santa Claus? I want one of these, one of these, etc. These are self-centered prayers. It's all so clear and obvious as we read about James and John in this conversation with Jesus. Their request seems so selfish and audacious. But dig inside your own heart a little bit, listen to your prayers, and see how much of that attitude is present. It's all about ME.
Let's not be self-centered pray-ers.
1 comment:
I like what you said about how we tend so often to dictate to God how we want our prayers answered. I was poignantly reminded this past weekend of how easily we do that.
I was listening to a Jungle missionary tell about an absolutely horrible 8 day trek to several villages. For 5 days he prayed constantly that the trail would be easier, that there wouldn't be more steep hills, that he wouldn't get sick that night.... Finally he realized what he was doing, and started asking God for the strength to get through the bad trails, over the steep hills, and survive despite being sick. His situation didn't change, but "those last 3 days were so much easier".
Too often we ask God to change our circumstances, when He wants to teach us something through them. Rather than learning by overcoming, we want to bypass all that hardship. At least, that's always my inclination...
This is a great blog, and I will check back here often. Keep up the good work.
Post a Comment