Asking God for the Fun Stuff

I promise to get back to the Lies series soon, but I thought I'd take a moment to share a little something that's been going on in our lives. We are thinking about buying a new house... well, doing more than thinking. We are currently waiting on the mortgage company to approve us for the loan. After some serious consideration about moving to Texas, we decided to stay right where we are, and actually aren't moving very far from our current house. We just decided that with the market as good as it is right now, it would be the perfect time to buy a home that we can comfortably continue to grow in.

This past Sunday at church, I was talking with a friend, who also happens to be an elder at our church, about all of my excitement and anxiety about the possibility of getting a new house. We still were waiting to talk to a real estate attorney at that point, so we weren't even sure yet if it was going to be possible to safely get out of our current house. He reminded me that God would work out whatever He had planned for us, to which I responded, "It's just hard to know sometimes what God wants." I thought maybe he didn't hear what I said, because he told me, "You can tell him what you want." I repeated my statement, to which he repeated his. I can tell God what I want.

I know that I can bring my requests to God, but I think I always have this notion that those requests have to be "honorable" or "worthy" somehow of asking God for it. God isn't a magic genie that we can just get stuff from, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't come to him with ALL the desires of our heart, even the selfish and sometimes unrealistic ones. It doesn't mean we're going to get the things we ask for, but sometimes we do. And when we do, the process of first praying for it, and waiting expectantly, reminds us where to direct the thanks. I think sometimes we thank God for providing the necessities, but we just assume that all the extra "stuff" comes from the world or our own strivings. We forget that sometimes God does bless us with the things that we enjoy, not because we need it, but because it makes us happy.

Ask expectantly of your heavenly Daddy, praise him when he responds with a yes to those "extravagant" desires, and be content when he responds with a no. But always ask.