Its A Little Bit Funny

I have been going through a bit of a dry spot lately. Not doing much reading or praying, just trying to motor through my days and get past this thing. The highlight of my week has been sitting in men’s Bible study on Saturday morning and feeling the pores of my soul open up a little as I relax and listen to the word discussed. Sunday morning has been the same way.

Now that things are done, and life has not suddenly gotten any easier, I realize I have… ..got…..to….reach.. …for….my….Bible. So the last couple mornings I have taken a few minutes in the morning and made myself do some reading. It is always great to be reminded of the responsiveness of God when we do the things he has told us to do. I find myself feeling refreshed, and thinking, ok, I need to do more of that tomorrow. It is a little bit funny to be surprised by this feeling. It is not like He doesn’t tell us what the Word is good for.

Relationship asking

I have been getting a lot of reading about prayer lately.  Reading Yancey’s book on prayer, and the last few days Oswald Chambers has been about prayer as well.  I was thinking about all the things we pray, for which we already know the answer.  Our children do the same thing.  They come and ask for a treat too close to dinner time, or a glass of water too close to bed time or to go play somewhere or with someone that they know is not the best.  Since we are human and somewhat inconsistent, our children have some hope that we might say yes this time.  We do the same thing to God.  We ask for things that we know are marginal hoping that God will say yes this time, but God is consistent, and does not get tired of saying “No” to us.

Then I started thinking about the requests that delight me as a father(or at least they should).  “Daddy can we play a game?”  “Will you read to me?”  “Can I go to the store with you?” “Will you help me with this problem?”  These are the questions that I think God delights in.  After all, He has given us his Spirit and the Word to tell us how to live, but the relationship with him can only be built with time.

I want to share this lesson with my children.  I already recognize that I will have to apologize for my own shortcomings in this area.  At the same time, I am able to say that in the last five months I have been working on saying yes to the relationship requests of each of my children.  It is great to have something confirmed in this way.