"Must-Have" Prayer

Philippians 4:19 (NIV)  And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

The website Statistic Brain has tracked the "must-have Christmas gift" for the past few decades. In 1983 everyone had to have a cabbage patch doll. In 1984 we just had to have a $30 Trivial Pursuit game. In 1989 American households scrambled to get a new Game Boy, followed by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1990. Then in 1995 it was the Beanie Baby craze, and the 1999 Razor Scooter frenzy. In the ensuing years American consumers knocked themselves out to buy the following top yearly must-have Christmas gifts: a new iPod (2002), A Wii (2006), an iPad (2010), the Angry Birds Board Game (2011), and the Doc McStuffins doll (2013). This year’s big winner looks to be the Frozen Sing-Along Elsa Doll (2015).

Anything on this this list that you or your children ever wanted… badly? In my youth I spent many a Christmas wanting so much more than “my two front teeth”. I made my lists and wrote my letters. Recently Joanne and I found a well-written letter to Santa from Brianne when she was quite young. It was so polite. We laughed when we thought about how “bad” a year it must have been for her, because we did not remember her getting anything on the list… and it wasn’t because she had been bad.

Our “want lists” are rarely satisfied completely. If they are, they are soon replaced with new lists. But most people I know do not get everything they want. As I have gotten older my lists have gotten shorter. I’m always telling Joanne and our kids “I don’t want anything. I don’t need anything.” So does Joanne. I remember my dad saying that when I was young and thinking, “He’s crazy!” I couldn’t imagine anyone not wanting anything. I always wanted stuff. As you grow out of childhood the “stuff” changes. It gets much more expensive. Our kids learned not to bother asking if it was something very high in cost, even though they might have wanted it. In adulthood many of our wants change from things (stuff) to the less tangible: more time, more sleep, less busyness, more quiet, less stress, less worry, etc.

Some of my prayers – perhaps many – over the years have approached God with a “must-have” mentality. I’ve gone to Him with things (usually things that were wants, not needs) that I had to have. Imagine that: me, a finite, limited person presuming I could inform God what I must have. As my faith has matured, I am learning to ask God for what He – in His wisdom – deems best for me. In His infinite knowledge and love He always provides for my needs. When my wants are in tune with what He wants for me, I receive those as well. The secret is to want what He wants. Paul referred to this as contentment. John Piper describes it as being satisfied with all that God is for me in Jesus Christ. Oh, that my prayer life could be focused on more of what God wants and less of what I want. Then I would never have to worry about God saying “No!” to my prayers, because He will always say “Yes!” to His own will.

May we have an attitude of “must-have” in prayer about everything God says we must have.

Philippians 4:11-13 (NIV) ¹¹  I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹²  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³  I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Romans 8:31-32 (NIV) ³¹  What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

1 John 5:14-15 (NIV) ¹⁴  This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵  And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.

PRAYER:  Father, you have given me everything in Christ. Thank you. Let that be the focus of all my joy and desire. In His name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!    

Scott