To Get What You Want...

     What a wake up call I received this week. I'm not talking ATT or Verizon, I'm talking about an epiphany that has altered my mindset about many of the trials and circumstances I am either currently living in or those that I have overcome in life. As my daily prayer life has become a part of who I am, and as I have learned to go to God with thanks for what He has done in my life, I realized that during most of my prayers I am asking God for something. It may be strength, courage, perseverance, or wisdom, but whatever it is I guess I have always thought God was just going to pour it down out of Heaven much like the rain that nourishes plants and provides them with what they need to grow. Well, my "Aha" moment was this. Yes, God hears our pleas for strength or wisdom or whatever you may "want" in your life, but to get what you "want", you've got to do what it takes to get it.
     Let's take the virtue of patience as an example. We may desire to increase our ability to have patience with a loved one, a friend, or some type of situation at work. We go to God and make our request for patience known and then I guess we think all that we need to do at that point is to sit back and let the One that made us go to work on pouring some patience into us. I get a mental image of milk jugs on an assembly line making their way around to the milk dispenser and as each one reaches the delivery point it just sits there and the milk pours out exactly the amount needed to fill each jug to the lid. Sounds pretty easy huh? Unfortunately, fortunately that isn't how it works. You may have heard the old saying, "Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it", that's kinda the same principle here. If you ask for patience God doesn't work on the milk jug method of filling us with patience, instead to gain patience we have to go through the process of learning patience, giving patience, and enduring situations that build patience in us before we finally realize that we have become a more patient person.
   The training ground is what we would prefer to get a free pass around, yet that is exactly what we must have to actually gain the gift God wants to give. I've been enjoying the song "Let it Rain Is There Anyone" by Crowder and Mandisa lately and the gist of the song is to allow God to "rain" down on us the problems, issues, matters, and circumstances that will eventually create in us the person God wants us to become. There's one part of the song that really hits home with today's thought:

"So let it rain if You want
You are God and I am not
Let it rain, rain down on me
Every day whatever You want
Not my will but Yours, Lord
Let it rain, rain down on me"

 

If we truly want that strength to see us through each day, if we want wisdom to see us through a situation we are facing, or if we need God's courage to face those demons standing in front of us then we need to understand that to get what we want, we must go through what it takes to get there. 

     How could we gain strength without doing the workouts? Remember "No pain no gain"? Bodybuilders go through a tremendous amount of pain and sacrifice before they ever reach the level  professionals in that field strive to achieve. Same for us, when I pray for patience I must understand that I'm going to have to go through some pretty uncomfortable situations to reach my destination. Along the way, every situation I endure builds that patience I so desire to obtain. To acquire wisdom, I have to go through some experiences where I probably won't look very wise in my decision making, yet the lessons I will learn through those experiences is where the wisdom is actually obtained. This may have been a no-brainer for most of you, but for some reason this one just hit me full frontal this past week. 

     To close out today's time I'd like to share one last thought for the week. You may need forgiveness. You may be asking for forgiveness and just don't feel like you could ever be forgiven. Keep in mind, none of us really deserves forgiveness, yet God has a plan for each of us to receive forgiveness. Within that plan we have to be willing to forgive those that we may not want to forgive. Today's  principle holds true in this situation as well. How can we gain forgiveness if we are unwilling to forgive. Jesus shared a parable about a king that forgave a servant of a huge debt owed to the king, and then the same man went out and threw a man in prison for a small debt owed to him. The king found out and placed the first debtor in prison. (Matthew 18:21-35) Whatever we want, whatever we ask for, be reminded God will give it to you if it is truly what you want and what He believes you need, but it doesn't come in a neat little box with a pretty little bow on it. We have to be willing to do what needs to be done to receive the gift, so as for me, "Let it rain, let it pour, let it rain, rain down on me!" 

May God richly bless you today and every day going forward! 

Coach Carter