Today's Devotional
May 18, 2006
Subject: Prayer Shortcuts
Romans 8:26 - "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."
I had just picked up my daughters from my brother's house. On the ride home they were telling me about some "super-model" show that they had just finished watching on TV. It was kind of funny because in telling me about it, they captured all of the drama about how emotional it was as they anticipated the announcement of the winner. My oldest, Caylah, went so far as to say, "We were praying for (blah blah blah) to win." She went on to say that when they announced that she won, they jumped and screamed and shouted so loud that my brother jumped up and came out to see what happened. Then Caylah said, "Amy (my sister-in-law) almost cried." I said, "wow. You prayed for her to win this top-model thing?" Then I went into a diatribe that would probably best be described as "over-the-top" unless of course you know me and have had to put up with one of these before. I said, "with people around the world starving and being killed daily in wars, you prayed for this girl to win this super-model thing?" I continued, "with children being kidnapped, killed and abused, you prayed for a super-model to win lots of money?" Of course my girls are used to me, so Caylah had an immediate comeback. She said, "well I prayed for her to win because she said that her mom had some sickness and she needed the money to get her medical treatment." Acting surprised, I said, "oh." Then I responded subtly, "so you prayed for her to win so that her mom could get her medical treatment, huh?" Both girls then said in agreement, "yes." I then asked them a rhetorical, "if you wanted her mom to be healed, why not just pray for that? Does God need money to heal someone?"
It was a good conversation and I simply try to get my girls to really ponder spiritual issues in everything, but it highlighted something that I think that we do as believers. Sometimes it's wrong or impure motives and sometimes it's just our ignorance as growing children in God. We sometimes take the long route in prayer. You know, we pray for certain things to happen so that this other thing can happen.
It's pretty simple when you think about it. Why not just take the prayer "short-cut"? Ask God for the final thing and let Him decide how it will happen. Perhaps God would use the model's new-found wealth to get her mother's medical treatment, but He doesn't have to. A normal shortcut can leave you lost and prolong the time for you to get where you're going, but with God, a prayer shortcut is the surest way to get to the "final" destination and get there on time.
