Guest Blogger: Holly Ham—”Hey everybody, you may know my face from Faith Church Cedar Lake. I attend with my husband Nick, who is usually sporting a Security shirt, and my two boys Mason and Owen. I check in your little ones for Treasureland. I am not a writer or author by any means, but here are my thoughts for what it is worth!”
A while back I opened up my inbox to my email and I would be lying if I said I didn’t roll my eyes. My attention was caught by the subject line. It read, “A simple prayer to say that will change your life.” Okay, I’ll bite. Since I knew the sender, I opened it up and proceeded to read.
The summary of this email was to inform me that if I just walked around my house and stopped to pray in every room for God to take away all my problems, heal my sick family members, and bless my life, then I could rest assured by the next morning my life would be smooth sailing! And oh, at the bottom, it was added that if I forward this to five friends within the next five days some big windfall of money was coming my way!! So obviously I shut down the computer, folded my hands, and called my travel agent to plan my next vacation right?!
Wrong.
While the last part of this email surely could not have been taken seriously by anyone, (although it was since it had made it’s way to my inbox), I think that maybe there are a few that believe the first part. Now, this is not to say that I don’t believe God can answer my prayers or heal the sick. My God is a God of wonders! And I DO believe he can perform miracles. However a blanket prayer, such as the one mentioned in the email, just doesn’t sit right with me. What am I really asking God to do by taking away all my problems? Seems, to some degree, that I am asking him to give me complete control and let me go on my merry way living a perfect, problem free life.
But then I remembered that the Bible states that in this life I WILL have trouble. I have often heard the words “God will not give you more than YOU can handle.” And while it is true we can do all things through CHRIST who gives us strength, I think it might be wiser to say that “God does not give us more than HE can handle.” Quite honestly just waking up and breathing is more than I can handle on my own. Maybe that’s the point God is trying to make.
When else in your life, except maybe at your breaking point, do you surrender ALL to God? So I ask you to consider your intentions and what you are truly asking for when you pray. Surrender yourself, lift up your hands, and then lift up your heart and prayers to God. Pray and believe he has the power to perform miracles, ABSOLUTELY!!! Believe through faith that HE HEARS YOU!! But in all things, in all outcomes, and in every situation give HIM the glory and honor and praise!!
Psalm 49:7-9 (Message paraphrase)
“Really! There is no such thing as self-rescue,
Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.
The cost of rescue is beyond our means,
and even then it doesn’t guarantee
Life forever, or insurance
against the Black Hole.”
Great post! I’m so glad every time I see another Christian debunking and breaking chain email. Be proud of your eye-rolling. God does not work through spam chain email, nor is he a slave to it. It’s time Christians said “Enough with the religion-exploitive chain emails.”
i needed this tonight….thanks. great post! (thanks, Shar)