Be Specific
Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your [specific] requests known to God.
This morning I sat amazed about the things that has happened in the past couple of weeks.
note: Read the last ‘Declaring His Faithfulness’ entry
And as I thought about them I saw a ribbon with the words ‘Be specific’ start to grow and become a banner. Odd as I pondered these words ‘be specific’ and my thoughts instantly went to when I was a child.
It was December as I stood one evening in front of our glowing Christmas tree. The colorful lights reflected off the big picture window as it stood in the darkness of our open living room. The excitement of Christmas morning wasn’t there for me, because I would not allow myself to begin to hope for anything specific. Why? Because unfortunately at a young age, it was my way to keep myself from being disappointed.
It was no secret that my parents struggled. Us older kids knew about family friends who would gather gently used so they could wrap them with Christmas paper to place under the tree for us kids. Not that I was ungrateful about everything we had gotten. But I was just a little leery about wearing any hand-me-downs that I had gotten. One of those “new outfits” was recognized by the previous owner and was pointed out to everyone that the previous owner looked better in it than I did.
‘Why make a list of things I want,’ I thought to myself? ‘Why put that kind of pressure on mom and dad. I know that they are doing the very best that they can.’
Today as a parent myself, I understand how great my heart feels when I am able to fulfill my child’s wishes. Thinking about that I wonder if I hurt my parents because I didn’t dare to ‘wish’.
Then I thought about our Heavenly Father, does HE get hurt when we don’t dare to ‘wish’ for things.
Now, do get me wrong here. I am not saying that God is a god that grants all wishes.
No. But Papa God does know our heart desires and when we don’t allow ourselves to even imagine or ask for these things, does it hurt Him?
Again, as I ponder these things I felt the Father say to me; When you aren’t specific I cannot show you how faithful I am. I move so much in your everyday life and when I do answer your prayers, because you aren’t specific with me, you assume it was something you had done on your own or it was just a coincidence.”
Wow, Papa is right. I do this. Truthfully, I never noticed this before. I am very specific when I pray for most every situation except the ones that pertains to me personally.
Do you find this to be true for you?
Perhaps this is the true reason for this post, for me (us) to process to find out why.