Please, Daddy?

I watched, exhausted, as my little boy splashed in the pool as much as his water wings would allow. My doctor had just told me I was low on B12 a few days earlier, and, boy, was I feeling it. The other "grown ups" were stationed around the pool this 4th of July, chatting about lawn mowers, summer league baseball, and fruit salad recipes. Not Cole's mommy. No, I was struggling in chin deep water to keep Cole and his Spiderman floaties from bobbing under.

Just when I was about to bail out, I caught my dad's eyes. "Cole," I exclaimed, "ask Poppy to swim with you!" My dad, already dried out, fully dressed, and full from hot dogs and baked beans, was in no way, shape, or form ready to jump back in the water.

Barely two, I knew it would be a miracle if Cole conjured those words out of his mouth, but again I prompted, "Cole, if you say those words I KNOW Poppy will get in." And I knew, beyond any doubt whatsoever, that if Cole asked that of Poppy, that Poppy would get in.

While miracles do happen, that wasn't one of them. But it did remind me that our heavenly father sometimes just wants us to ask. He wants us to lay aside the aspirin bottle, the sorrow-covered tissue, and the piling collection letters and just ask.

James 4:2 says "Ye have not because ye ask not."

When we ask, we must have faith - just like I had in my earthly father.

Matthew 21:22 says "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."

Interesting... I just realized I haven't asked God to heal my B12 imbalance. Forgive me, Lord!

Degrees of Prayer

In all honesty, let's think of how hard we'd pray for the following situations. I'm going to base my answers on what I've seen of "church folk" over my 28 minus 4 days years. I'm considering how long people will pray, how "hard," how deeply, how sincerely, etc. Scale of 1-10 with 10 being praying so hard, fasting and weeping and begging, and 1 being barely praying at all - if any.

• 1=Personally having a cold
• 4=Child or Grandchild having a cold
• 3=An 80 year old with cancer
• 9=An 8 year old with cancer
• 1=Personally having a headache
• 2=Buying a red car or a blue car
• 8=Not having money to buy a car

So, let's talk here. Why would we not pray as much if we had a cold or a headache? Well, probably because we know that it will go away "on its own" if God doesn't intervene. Personally, I don't think many people think God will intervene. Why waste God's time on praying for a headache that an aspirin can cure anyway?
There was this guy at church who would say, "Hello, how are you." If you said anything but "Good" he'd immediately take your hands and start praying. I stopped talking to him for a while...
Why would we pray harder for an 80 year old than an 8 year old? Eh, the 80 year old has lived her life. It's her time to go.
Why do we pray harder for the money to buy a car than for making the right choice on a car? We know only God can work in "impossible" situations. And, while I'm sure that's flattering to God, He still wants to be consulted on the other parts of life.
Why do we limit God? Why do we lack faith or sometimes not even care if we have faith at all?
My husband once prayed at night, "Lord, please help me to feel a little better in the morning." Why? Why do we limit God and ask to feel "a little better?" Do we feel the need to punish ourselves for all the things we did during the day that God should deduct from his blessings & healings?
I strongly feel that how "hard" we pray coincides with how difficult we think the situation is to remedy without God's help. A head cold will be remedied in a few days "on its own." Cancer could kill us - whew, better call God.
I suppose my sarcasm can be better understood as realization. A realization that God answers our prayers in spite of us. In spite of our "little better" prayers. In spite of our lack of faith over the headaches and over abundance of desperation for the impossible.

ExerSaucers and Swords

At a baby shower for my soon-to-be-born son, we received an ExerSaucer. It's one of those "walkers" that doesn't actually move anywhere, but instead has tons of little toys and gadgets all around it where a child can sit in its colorful cloth seat and spin from toy to toy. Just picture a baby walker on steroids.

Anyway, if you were to ask me if I had one, I'd have to say yes. But, it just sat in the box for several months. So, yes we had one, but no, we didn't use it.

I put off opening the box, knowing full well that thousands of tiny screws and bolts would fall out. My husband, too, never found the time. So, good ol' Grandpa came over. He tore into the brightly colored box and, sure enough, all these attachable toys in wrappers, plastic screws, and red and yellow cloth spilled out.

Yes, we had an ExerSaucer. But it seemed a little overwhelming and, if it had been me, I think I would have just put all the little pieces back in the box and headed to the WalMart return desk.

After what seemed like hours (for all those involved and uninvolved), the ExerSaucer was complete - shiny, noisy, bouncy, and colorful.

See, we had an ExerSaucer the whole time. But, it wasn't used for its purpose. Baby Cole couldn't play with the bouncy clown on top or spin on the saucer disk. It wasn't until someone opened the box and dove into the un-understandable instructions that Cole could play with his "new" toy.

God has given us gifts to use. One of the best gifts is His word. He calls it the "sword of the spirit.” I find this interesting because, God wouldn't have given us a weapon if he planned to do all the fighting for us. He wouldn't have armed us for battle if he'd always cause the enemy to run way.

No, God gave us a weapon to use for battles he knew we’d face. And yes, the Bible does have other uses (correct, instruct, etc.), but His word specifically calls it a sword. What are we fighting? What comes against us?

• We have "divine power to demolish strongholds" 2 Corinthians 10:4
• "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God" 2 Corinthians 10:5
• We "war against the law of [our] mind" Romans 7:23
• "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:12

Beth Moore has said (as I'm sure others have too) that Satan's already lost his war with us when Jesus died on the cross. So, he plays make believe. He tries to "make us believe" that our worries, guilt, shame, doubts, fears, past hurts, heartaches, enemies, and words that come against us are justified and real. God knew he'd try to do this, so he gave us the greatest weapon of all (it's never lost a battle!).

David (who was a man after God's own heart - with his share of pitfalls) writes in Psalms 119 "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."

His word - this weapon - is so important that we should know it, read it, use it. Like an ExerSaucer in a box, it does us no good sitting on a shelf. We must know it so fully that...

...when Satan comes against us we can say (or YELL at him), "The one in me is greater than you!" 1 John 4:4

...when we feel alone we can remind ourselves that He said, "I will never leave or forsake you." Hebrews 13:5

...when we dwell on old failures and mistakes, we can remember that He doesn't hold them against us and remembers them no more. Hebrews 8:12

Oh, there are so many more! So many ways we can use this wonderful weapon and win every time.

Do you feel like you're losing a battle? Do you need encouragement? Is life getting you down? Just pick up your sword!