Our sermon at church yesterday was about how God can surprise us, and how we as prayer warriors can pray that God would do something surprising. (I heard of one young boy who asks God to dazzle him!) Our pastor referenced the book, "Surprise Me" by Terry Esau, and said that while it's a good book, we should also be writing our own book. Maybe not literally, but he suggested that we pray that prayer for a while and see what God will do.
So after church, I went to my bedroom for some quiet time and prayed that prayer. I was right away bombarded with images of my kids getting hurt. We were planning a trip up into the mountains (see last post), and I kept seeing Jack crawl off the edge and fall thousands of feet. Or I would see Josh walking on an iced-over lake and fall in.
Satan is always trying to do that. To distract me from my time with God. He's always trying to put all this fear in me so that I won't ask God for anything real or risky. He was trying to do that yesterday. Praying "God, surprise me," isn't a safe prayer. If you've read your Bible recently, you'll notice that He doesn't let us live a pain-free life. Asking God to show up and do something drastic, drastic enough to surprise us, could mean that life as we know it might get turned upside down. I definitely don't want God to take one of my kids from me in order to surprise me. I don't want to be diagnosed with cancer or be in a car accident as a result of asking God to show up in a mighty way. But I also know that life isn't easy, and as long as I have my faith and my God, that everything will turn out alright.
So Satan can go bother someone else. I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of having put any kind of fear in me. I will NOT stop praying for God to show up. I will NOT stop asking God to surprise me. I will NOT lose my faith or my focus. I will NOT become a slave to fear - only praying for ease and comfort. I am going to continue to pray that God would rule my life and guide me through whatever He thinks I need to further His kingdom.
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