Outline of Life

I read a friends blog witch asked a very good question, Does prayer change things? I answered her by saying this. Yes, prayer does change things. I wanted to get into more detail about why I think this way, but I did not want to take up all her comment space. I can ramble on when I get going on a subject. So here is the 411 on why I chose to answer her question that way.

I do believe that our lives and the fate and course of our lives is predetermined by God. I also believe that prayer can change things in our lives even if it is just our perception of our life that is changed.

I think that God has made an outline of our lives, just like an outline we have made several times at school. We can have details added to the outline, and our lives can have details added too. The details added to the outline does not affect the out come of the outline. Therefore the added details to our lives will not change the outcome of our lives. Adding more may make our lives just a little more interesting to live.

I do believe that God wants to give us what we want just like we want to give our children everything they want. We as parents know that giving our children everything is not always best. If we are truly made in the image of God then, I think God looks at our lives in the same way. If He gives us all we want then we can not be molded into the good people He would like us to be, we would become spoiled little brats that would take His love for granted. Just like when your child cries in the middle of the store for a sucker. He may even throw himself down and throw a fit. If you give them the sucker then you are condoning that kind of behavior. If we pray for something we really want aren't we just like a child asking for that sucker. If we are good and He thinks we deserve it then we may get it.

There is a song by Garth Brooks called Unanswered Prayers. In the song he asked the Lord to make this girl fall in love with him. He does not get his prayer answered and years later he prayed and thanked God for not answering the prayer because he found someone he loved even more.

I say yes prayer can and does change things,but my question is to anyone reading this, do we want ALL our prayers answered? Do we want our lives to go as God has predestine or do we want him to answer ALL our prayers and give us what we want even though it may not be what is best for us?

I don't, I want my life to be what He has picked for me and if he happens to let me have a few extra gifts along the way then I will be grateful for them. I want to put my trust in knowing that He knows what is best for me.

Psalms 4:5

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.