Vending Machine Prayers

Growing up, I was captivated by vending machines. Push a few buttons, insert some quarters, and seconds later, the requested treat would appear. To my six-year-old mind, it was like magic. Though I rarely had the opportunity to use one, whenever I did, I would stand in front of the machine for long minutes, wide-eyed, going back and forth between one choice and another. What do I want today?

Recently, I was reminiscing about my vending machine fascination, when a thought struck me:

How often does my prayer time resemble those childhood vending machine moments?

I come before the Lord, spend time in praise and thanksgiving, and then . . . What do I want today? Ah, yes, Lord, today I would like a solid four hours of productive writing, freedom from stress about the week ahead, blessings for a struggling friend, resolution of a difficult family situation, and a front-row parking space when I go to the grocery store. Got it?

This is somewhat of an overstatement, but you get the picture. It’s all too easy to lapse into the mindset that God’s job is to give me what I want, to listen to me, and to answer my prayers in the way I ask.

Oh, does that mindset ever need a redo!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who lived during World War II, felt called by God to work against the Nazi regime. When his activities came under suspicion, he spent eighteen months in a Berlin prison, before being transferred to a concentration camp. On April 9, 1945, a few short weeks before the war ended, he was executed. While in prison, he wrote the following to a friend,

“God does not give us everything we want, but he does fulfill his promises, leading us along the best and straightest paths to himself.”

Imagine writing these words in a Nazi prison, separated from friends and loved ones. If there was ever a time to be asking God for some big miracles, it would be then.

But that’s not what Bonhoeffer did. Instead of asking God for a speedy release from prison, for an end to the interrogations he was subjected to, even for more visits with loved ones, he instead sought the will of his heavenly Father. He trusted God would indeed fulfill his promises—his peace, his presence, and a future with him in eternity. Even if life in this world was filled with pain and heartache, Dietrich trusted that through it all God had a plan, and in the midst of suffering, was drawing him ever closer.

Now, those are prayers we can rest assured God will answer.

There’s nothing wrong with bringing our personal, daily concerns before the Lord. In fact, he commands us to cast our care upon him, because he cares for us. (1 Peter 5:7) The danger comes when we approach prayers as demands and give in to discouragement and anger when they’re not answered the way we’d like.

Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”

His thoughts are exceedingly greater and more profound than our thoughts. His ways are infinitely higher than ours.

When we let the truth of this verse embed itself in our hearts, when we keep it before us during prayer and ask God to reveal its depths to us, amazing things begin to happen. We begin to view our time with God as a gift of communion with him, instead of a laundry list of wants and needs. With this attitude, when a prayer isn’t answered in the way we desire, it’s less of a struggle to remove our hands from the situation and surrender control to God. Often, looking back, we’ll see that had our request been answered as we asked, a better plan would not have taken place. His “immeasurably more” is far above what we in the moment could “ask or imagine.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Sometimes, we simply have to trust, even if the why is never revealed to us this side of heaven. Recently, a twenty-one-year-old young woman in our community lay in a hospital bed battling for her life after a severe car accident. Christians in my town and across social media cried out to God to heal this sweet girl’s body. God answered our prayers for healing, but instead of restoring this young woman to us on earth, he took her home to heaven. Heartbreaking days followed as we grieved for this daughter, sister, and friend. Why? Why did God allow this tragedy? many asked, myself included.

Faith, sometimes, is trust without answers. Learning to seek God daily, not to get what we want, but what He wants for us. Remembering that above all, true hope is found not in positive answers to our earthly prayers, but in the One we pray to—our Savior, Lord, and King.

ECPA bestselling author Amanda Barratt lives to share the gift of her amazing Savior through novels, speaking, and in everyday life in small-town northern Michigan. Her novel My Dearest Dietrich: A Novel of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Lost Love releases June 2019 from Kregel Publications. Connect with her on Facebook and visit her website at www.amandabarratt.net.