Ask and you shall receive... sorta.

I’ve been in Corpus this week on business. I tend to watch a lot of TV when I’m on the road, and last night I was watching the movie “Evan Almighty.”

I hadn’t seen it before, and wasn’t sure it would be worth watching because it’s a comedy employing the story of Noah and how a modern day man is visited by God and told to build an ark. These types of shows usually make fun of Biblical beliefs, so I don’t watch them. However, I decided to take a look at this film and I’m really glad I did, because I learned a really important lesson.

There is a scene where Evan’s family thinks he’s crazy and has left him. His wife is sitting in a restaurant when God visits her in the form of Morgan Freeman.

Side note: does anyone remember Morgan from back in 1977 when he was on the show “The Electric Company?”

Anyway, he said something pretty profound to her: “When people pray for patience, do you think God just gives them patience, or does he give them an opportunity to be patient? If someone prays for courage, do they get it, or does God give them an opportunity to be courageous?”

Wow, that really had an impact on me because it’s one of the clearest truths I’ve ever heard about how God works in people’s lives. We all know that God works in mysterious ways, and it’s because he doesn’t just want to hand us things, he also wants us to learn and earn. He knows that humans are fickle, and if you give a kid a dollar he doesn’t learn anything, but if you make them earn it, they learn the value of money.

God does this with the things we ask for. Sometimes it’s pretty straightforward, like healing a sick friend. But for the most part people get what they ask for in ways they weren’t expecting. They may even complain that they’re praying for something but God isn’t listening, when all along He's trying to give them an opportunity to find it themselves. He produces circumstances and situations that give us exactly what we’ve been asking for while learning the value of it.

Don’t overlook the opportunities that God has put in your life today.

“God, thank you for being such a wise teacher, for answering our prayers with wonderful lessons that help us grow, and make us wiser. Amen.”