Prayers of wants

Praying can be difficult at times. We think that we have it all together. We go to God. We tell God what we want. And somehow it magically appears. However, prayer does not work like that. Prayer is not going to Him with all our problems and concerns and somehow managing to come up with a grand answer. The prayer process depends if God’s desire for what we want is the same as what we want. If our desire is not the same as God’s, God’s desire to going to come out on top.

It stinks. It is horrible because at times we think that we are doing everything God asks of us, so why can God just give us that one thing that we so want. While talking to Father M. about my own prayer life, he gave me a “mote quote”. His mote quotes are just little notes that we need to reflect on. Father M. explained to me that God’s desires need to align with our own desires. The sky is just a huge refrigerator. On the refrigerator, each prayer is a piece of art. Each prayer needs to align with the piece of art next to it. Our piece of art or the prayer needs to align with the piece of art sitting next to it. God does not want flowers growing out of the sky.

With each prayer, God knows the timing of the request. However, in our little minds, we need to have the answers right now. We need to feel like God heard us and is giving us what we need. We forget that we are not God and more importantly, the prayer request may not align with the piece next to it. What is even more amazing, is we do not know what the position of our piece of art is on the refrigerator. It is according to our freedom to choose, but to how God will use us during our time on Earth. We are only a finite piece on the bigger scheme of things. God knows exactly how He is going to use us. He knows what heartaches, people, and things He will be sticking on our journey during our Earthly time.

However, we do not know the reasons. As much as we want to know the reasons. We will not. We can continue to pray for the things we want. However, our prayers of wants are not our prayers of needs and most likely will not be answered. God usually answers the prayers that are aligned with His desires and hopes for us. While He wants his pieces of art to be awesome and to be able to have everything fit into place, He knows that all of our control needs to be relinquished to Him.  We want control and yet, there is no desire for control to be in the hands of God. It boils down to the fact that we are not in control of what suffering we will endure and what joy we will experience.

All of these things are in the hands of God, we can pretend to be in the position that we know better than God. Yet, we do not. We do not know the effects that all the puzzle pieces are supposed to align. We do not know what God has instore for us or how we are going to be the people God intended us to be. Sometimes we want to think that we have all the answers. Sometimes we want to think that we are God. Our prayers reflect those moments. Our prayers reflect what we are experiencing and we can pretend our request is more important than the last. However, we need to remember that it is only that, a request. Our prayers need to align with how God views His plan for our lives. It is difficult to not have the instant gratification of getting the answer now. Yet, I know that God’s plan needs to be greater than our own.  The master art piece needs to be beautiful and will be on God’s terms.