James says we ask “amiss.”
And then there’s this: Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts (James 4:3). I know I’ve already referred to this verse. However, there is also another way of looking at it. Often, I’ve learned the things I have prayed for were not the things I needed. We’ve all done it – asked the Lord to help us with a certain situation, asking for that one thing we know would help us out of the struggle. No, I wasn’t interested in the Lord’s will. I wanted the situation to either end or to be settled.
I remember having a friend tell me he was praying to God. He needed God to send him money for a bill. He was sure extra money would help him deal with it rather than realizing what the rest of us knew. It was his behaviors that led to the financial crisis. We all have those moments where our own bad decisions have led us to the point where we become focused on whatever or whomever it is that can deliver us from our situation. Rarely do we pray for the Lord’s will to be done. But what we pray is along the lines of Lord, unless you do this, it’s gonna get worse…
Dangers of “I want…” Christianity
“I want…” Christianity leaves us empty.
My own Christian faith was made weaker because of my attitude towards the Lord. I’d pray for the things I thought I needed to discover my prayers unanswered and feeling that the Lord didn’t care. No, the Lord did not abandon me. It was my lack of understanding about who the Lord is and my relationship with Him, which left me feeling empty. We can’t expect the Lord to answer our prayers when we demand what we think we need. And when this does happen, our natural, Earthly response is to feel the Lord has abandoned us.
“I want…” Christianity leaves us with doubts.
Doubt in the Lord is a serious issue among the young people I meet through the course of a typical school year. The most often question I am asked is, how do I know God is real when he won’t help me when I pray? I know I felt that way when my prayers weren’t answered the way I desired them to be. So much of our society is have-it-now based that it interferes with our faith. When our prayers aren’t answered now, Satan begins to fan the flames of doubt. We’ve all heard that small voice which says why are you wasting your time praying to a God who doesn’t listen to you? And if we harbor those feelings, soon we develop an attitude of God can’t be real; He does nothing for me!
“I Want…” Christianity poisons relationships
I never knew how toxic “I want it now…” Christianity was. All it takes is one person with the I want it now! attitude to bring down an entire congregation. It strains friendships and even relationships within the closest of families. The attitude affects how we interact with that person. When our wants are not in line with our actual needs, others notice. And every young Christian will go through this phase. We have no idea why others – whether at church or in our family – avoid us. There’s a reaction by others when they hear what our prayer needs are, which makes us feel like a child or that we are not being taken seriously.
But there’s this.
The thing which helped me overcome my bout of I want it now Christianity is to take Jesus at His word. In 2006, after I completely surrendered my life to Him, a change happened in how I think. If I say I love Jesus and believe that He, through my faith in Him, is my source of salvation, why do I have a hard time with the smaller things? After all, if Jesus did save my soul, why can’t He provide for me during (insert crisis or circumstance here). Just knowing that made it easier for me to pray Lord, show me what lesson you’d have me learn rather than Lord, all I need is (fill in the blank). The difference is one prayer asks the Lord for wisdom which we can use, now and in the future, the other asks for a quick fix.
