Getting what I want from God

In teaching the people how to pray more effectively, Jesus encouraged them to be real and sincere. He even reminded them that "...your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." (Matthew 6:8)

Prayer is such an opportunity to reconcile our will to God's will because He knows what we need far more than we do. We are promised that when we ask in faith according to what God wants for us, we will receive what we ask for.

I wonder if we can even begin to appreciate that when what we ask for in prayer is contrary to God's will, if He were to literally answer our prayer in the way we wanted, it would be detrimental to our well being.

So when we don't get what we think we want and sometimes think He's not listening, we might want to consider that His not giving us what we want could really be His way of giving us something better.

I've mentioned before that Talitha usually prefers not to go to bed. She asks for "one more" book and "one more" drink of milk and "one more" song when what she really wants is to not go to bed; and her getting what she wants in that case would be disastrous to her fragile health and recovery.

So think about it. When I put her to bed when that's not what she wants and that's not what she's asking for, am I "ignoring" her request and being "unresponsive" or am I--from a higher vantage point of understanding--helping her get something better than what she think she wants.

I know for myself that God doesn't ignore His children. He is not ignoring us nor is He being unresponsive. Our asking "one more" time or "one more" way sometimes has us so wrapped up in trying to get our way that we can't even begin to see the bigger picture.

Thank goodness our Father in Heaven is figuratively willing to just scoop us up in His arms mid sentence and lay us carefully in our beds amidst our storm of protest, kiss us gently, and let us have what we need instead of what we think we want.