I do understand that God is not a puppet, and prayer is not a button that we push and it always gets results. Asking God is asking, not commanding. God is the one who commands, not us.
But I do observe that we miss out on bundles of unclaimed gifts, simply because we do not ask, for if we ask not, we have not.
And just as importantly, we often ask amiss, we miss the target, because we are asking for the big gift. We forget about God's penchant for defeating big enemies with little weapons.
Goliath, the 9 foot tall, possibly 500 pound, professional mercenary was defeated by a slight young boy barely past puberty, who was armor was the heart of a lion, a sling, 5 well picked stones, and awesome hand eye coordination.
The fiercest and most majestic military force on the face of the earth was defeated by an over qualified, eccentric shepherd who needed a long class in anger management, and possessed only a shepherd's staff and a speech impediment.
All the forces of hell and all the momentum of millenniums of social decay, and even death itself was defeated in a single day by a solitary man hanging on a lonely cross.
If you have read The Dingy Gray Locker Parable, you will know that all of the education and experience and training that I received was piddly compared to the little white box in the bottom of the locker that said I could pray for a rain of grace. That lesson, because of my lust for bigness, took me 30 years to learn.
God ask us all,"What is in your hand?" Is it a staff, a sling, the jaw bone of an ass, a stalwart right hand man, a prayer, a hymn?? That, and the Spirit of God are all you need to open prison doors, fell a giant, stop the mouth of a pride of lions, part an ocean, and send the enemy packing!
