Careful, Shmareful!

"Be Careful for what you pray for" has got to be my least favorite Christian cliche. Not only is the theology behind it bad, but it causes us to pray smaller.

Matthew 7: 7-11

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and
you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who
asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be
opened. "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a
stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though
you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Everything that God gives us is something that is going to be beneficial for our lives. Because of Grace, even when we are imperfect with the things that we ask for God will give us exactly what we need. If you are anything like me, most of your prayer requests will be either unanswered or comeback with an answer "NO!" We constantly ask God for things that we think are good ideas, but by his omniscient wisdom he does not honor those requests because he is looking out for our best interests.

I think a part of grace is God letting us fumble around with our prayers, and even when we get the prayers a little wrong, or ask for the wrong thing He will still make sure that we get the right thing. I do believe though that most times this may be conditional with how attached we are to the Vine. When we are walking out of His will and we ask for things that are not healthy for us, we may just end up with what we wanted. I do not think it was the fact that God gave us what we wanted as much as the consequences of living a life outside the will of God.

We shouldn't be careful what we pray for, but we should bring everything to God in prayer. Our pray lives should be filled with craziness and boldness. We can't think bigger than God, and "He will do more than we can ask or imagine".

Isn't that what living an abundant life is all about? Being in God's will, then asking for the power and resources to do crazy stuff for Him. If it will help our growth and Him using us to advance His Kingdom, then I think we will get what we want. If we ask for something that in the end we would not be able to handle and it would be detrimental to our life and/or our Walk then I can assure you that we won't get a positive answer for that request. So I guess in the end it is better to pray with craziness than with caution because we will only receive the very best from God.