As I write I am preparing our family for a long car trip to spend Thanksgiving with out-of-state family. Family travel always includes expectations – good and bad – but today I woke up thinking about the bad ones. How many fights in the back seat of the van? How many complaints about how far we have to go? Would everyone willingly go to sleep when we arrive at the hotel? But then I had to stop because I realized I was expecting bad attitudes and stressful travel. While I can’t control those things, I can control my attitude toward them. And, more importantly, I should expect, anticipate, and plan for good. I should have faith in my family that we are all mature enough to travel as peacefully as possible.
Do we have the same type of positive faith in our prayer lives? When we “pray” are we just telling God the news of the day (“travel is stressful,” “I’m sick,” “my kids are messed up,” “the world is crazy,” etc.) – as if he doesn’t already know? (Really? Is God surprised by ANYTHING?) After all, the longer we talk about how bad things are, the more our faith leaks out of the situation. We can move from faith to fatalism.
Philippians 4:19 (NIV) says, “My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” I expect that if you look around you will agree that God is taking care of your needs. Maybe not in the way or time you’d expect, but he is faithful to follow through. Yet, the Bible never says he’ll take care of our “needs” but not our “wants.” Instead, it says, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer,” (Matthew 21:22 NIV) and “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened,” (Matthew 7:7-8 NIV). If God not only wants to provide for our needs but he expects us to ASK for the godly and Kingdom-minded things we want, then why don’t we ask for them?
When we order a package from Amazon, we expect it to arrive. In prayer, do we ask the God of the Universe for something with the same expectation we give a human company? Kingdom things don’t usually have a specific delivery date or tracking information, but shouldn’t we ask our faithful God with the same sort of expectancy that he will deliver? Romans 10:17 in The Passion Translation says, “Faith, then, is birthed in a heart that responds to God’s anointed utterance of the Anointed One.” When we respond to God’s loving voice, he births faith within us. Then we can expect good things when we ask God. We can expect God to meet not only our needs but our Kingdom-minded wants.
So, as I prepare for this trip, I’m going to ask in faith for a smooth, peaceful, no-incidents-or-arguments travel. I am going to pray the Word of God over our trip. I am going to expect my family to travel well and, barring that, I’m going to expect God to help me have a positive attitude in all aspects of the travel.
God of the Universe,
Thank you that you supply all our needs and you love us thoroughly. Thank you that you have wooed us with your Voice and planted within us faith. Help our prayers to be in faith, trusting and expecting you, El Shaddai and Adonai, to answer us when we ask and seek and knock because we will receive, find, and see the doors opened. Holy Spirit, help us to wait patiently for your answers. Help us expect good things from you, our loving Father who gives good gifts to your children. We ask this in Jesus’s name, Amen.
“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11 NIV)
Hat tip: Pastor Tim Cross 11/13/22