Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Least We Can Do is ... Ask

The other day I was talking to a friend about a dream that I had that I was able to remember pretty vividly. Several quirky things happened and some that I was sure were symbolic of something... the thing that set the dream apart was the feeling I remembered. The images and events were odd, but the feeling was awesome and almost other-worldy. 


"You should ask God what it means." He said. 


I suppose I often go through life and don't think to ask God. These are trivial things, why would I bother God with them. But perhaps they aren't trivial and perhaps God really cares about them. MAYBE I DO NOT HAVE because I have not asked.


James 4:2-3  (NIV 1984) You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.


As a side note. I was going to title this post, "The Least We Can Do is Pray." But then I thought about the negative(?) connotation I have with that word. I put prayer in the same space in my mind as evangelism. Through my entire Christian life these were always tasks that were daunting... even if I was trying to do them, I have this feeling that I can never do them good enough. Sometimes changing our language helps us change our outlook. Instead of thinking about evangelism- I started thinking about serving and reaching out and I got better at it. Instead of prayer... instead of saying things like, "How is your prayer life?" or "You should pray about it." or even, "I will pray for you." Maybe we should (or I should) start being more specific... "I will ask God to help you." "You should thank God for that." or maybe even, "You should beg God to help you with that." I think we might get some good results... itlwcd, right?

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