Something extraordinary is starting to happen to Gene. Every time he prays, he hears an immediate response. However, the answer is never about his actual requests, whether or not they would be fulfilled. The response addresses his motives.
The first time it happened, he was sitting on a job box on a construction site. The company he worked for was building a small shopping center in an up-and-coming area. Gene had mistakenly installed 48 wrong light fixtures in the ceiling of one of the stores. His foreman was already upset because the crew was behind schedule. Fixing the issue would put the company even further behind and put Gene in his boss’s crosshairs. He prayed, “Lord, please let this not be a big deal. Let the lighting be satisfactory to the developer, even though it is not what they had requested.”
Gene didn’t hear an audible voice, nor was there a voice in his head. It was as if eternal truth rolled through his heart and mind. First, it was confirmation that his prayer had been heard. This filled Gene’s heart with joy. He had never had such an experience. There was no doubt that God had heard his request. He waited to see if more was coming. It was, but it was not what he expected.
The response was a question. “How does this request hallow my name and advance the kingdom of God?” Gene was caught off guard. His first thought was, “What does that have to do with anything? I need the Lord’s help to get out of this predicament.” The moment he finished thinking it, cognitive dissonance began plaguing him. “Should I have considered that before praying?”
He pushed back against that question by saying to himself, “The Lord sees us as his children. He loves us. Surely, he would be more than happy to help us out, even if the advancement of the kingdom of God is not our ultimate desire.”
He paused and thought of the Lord’s prayer. When Jesus was teaching us to pray, the first petition was “Hallowed be Thy Name.” Gene had always glossed over that part as if it were part of the greeting, but now he saw it for what it was—the first request. The second followed immediately: “Your Kingdom come.”
Gene quizzed himself. “Why were those the first requests?” He answered, “Because we love our God and want to see him glorified.” He wondered, “Are they first because they are the most important? Is it even possible to make the other requests about forgiveness, daily bread, temptation, and so on in a way that does not seek to glorify God and see his kingdom come? It was certainly possible, but just as certainly misguided.”
He thought back to his original prayer. “Lord, please let this not be a big deal. Let the lighting be satisfactory to the developer, even though it is not what they had requested.” There was nothing inherently wrong with his request, but he began to question his motivations.
Gene knew immediately that most of his prayers had been self-centered—asked without any reference to God and his glory. His mind went back to his earlier thought. “The Lord sees us as his children. He loves us. Surely, he would be more than happy to help us out.”
Then the truth of the ages once again penetrated his soul. “God’s glory is our greatest good. To separate the blessing from God and his glory is to make the blessing a curse.”
Gene prayed again.
His request hadn’t changed—but he no longer held it the same way. He had once thought escaping trouble was his greatest need; now he saw that it wasn’t.
“If it is your will, let the lighting be satisfactory,” he prayed. “But if not, glorify yourself by giving me the strength to own my mistake and make it right. Your will be done.”
For the first time, he was not asking merely to be delivered from the situation, but to be faithful within it.
This was only the beginning. As you can imagine, Gene’s prayer life changed dramatically as this continued.
What about you?
Think back to your most recent prayer—over a meal, before bed, in the middle of a problem at work or school. If God answered you immediately, not about the outcome, but about your motives, what would He reveal?
-D. Eaton
The Fight of Faith 