A prayer request for self-indulgence …

Recently I was reading the comments and prayer requests sent out by some people I know, but these were a little different.

They detailed some stress, fears, and challenges these persons were currently facing, then each added a statement. They wrote they didn’t want the “normal Christian response.” You know, an offering of encouragement that God understood their situation and would provide for them. They instead seemed to want “real” answers.

That statement revealed they completely missed the point — and reality — of the Christian faith! It’s this: Jesus Christ IS the answer!

Asking for prayer when not wanting provision from your faith is a vain, empty act. To say you want and seek answers to your troubles, but don’t want that in terms of being encouraged in your faith is to demonstrate a lack of understanding of the very purpose for our faith in Christ!

I think the issue wasn’t so much that these people wanted God to do a work in their lives, but more that they wanted immediate relief to their troubles. They didn’t want to have to exercise their faith. They didn’t want to have to wait on the Lord. They didn’t want to have to trust that God may have a reason for their trials. They just wanted relief … now!

I can understand the emotion they expressed. But I also understand such emotions can be a very real form of self-indulgence. Not wanting to have to live out (act on) their faith by submitting themselves and their circumstances to the Lordship of Christ and, instead, simply want a return to comfort, is seeking an easy way and a selfish way. To not want to hear the “churchy” answer is to look for an answer outside their faith.

There isn’t one.

Christ alone is the answer for every issue we face in life. When we begin to understand and accept that, and then to live out that acceptance as our faith in action, we will finally make our faith into our reality.

Scotty