Hihi!
I shall now attempt to reply to Zhuang Mao's response. Indeed, I believe that you have several of the key ideas in the question sorted out, namely - 1.) we deserve nothing; 2.) we should not always pray
only for mundane things (the keyword is, of course, ONLY); 3.) we should never limit God.
Now here are some thoughts I have. Firstly, how do we limit God? Is asking for small things limiting God? Have you ever thought this way before, "This is so trivial, I better not bother God with it"? If you have, then perhaps you will immediately recognise now that God can be limited by us in many ways. We seem to perceive God as a very busy person - too busy to bother about little things. Yet, we often forget that God does not need to conform with the limitations of time. He exists outside of it and He knows all things and has accomplished everything according to His perfect plan, even as the world was created. The bottomline is this - while everyone knows that nothing is too great for our God, we often forget that nothing is too small for Him too.
Secondly, when our Lord Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil He replied thus, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." Once again we must take care that even as we ask of things from the Lord we must not fall into the trap of
testing God. God's Word and promises to us is sufficient. By faith, we ask of Him; by lack of faith, we
test Him. Therefore, prayer should not be a tool to affirm our lack of faith.
Thirdly, nothing shall be sought except that which is in the will of the Lord. For many, this is something that is very clear and obvious on paper, but close to impossible to accomplish in real life. This is because many people really don't know the will of the Lord. Therefore, like Marilyn says, we have to constantly maintain a relationship with the Lord, lest we fall into the trap of asking out of our own desires. The biggest danger is that this may become a foothold for the devil, with which he will cause us to contend with our Lord's will.
I will reply asap to any further comments. I hope we have all learned something from the exchange! :)
In His Love,
Cyrus
You were blessed by Cyrus
