Wants vs Needs

As I’ve matured as a person and in my faith, I realize that God will never give me everything I want, sadly.  Instead, God will give me everything I need.  God will give me patience, strength, peace, wisdom, knowledge, sensitivity, perseverance, faith, and more.  God will give me the Holy Spirit.  When I open myself to pray and allow God to work, God molds me into a better person.  In fact, I often end up surrendering whatever I was so certain I wanted, because God knows what is best anyway, and I can trust that.

Jesus certainly didn’t have everything that someone in His day would want.  But He had the Spirit of God alive within Him, and every time He prayed, He deepened in relationship to the Father who loved Him and sustained Him.  That is what allowed Him to be effective, healing, strong, and prophetic. That is what gave Him what He needed to endure suffering, betrayal and death.

That is what prayer is all about.  It’s not a laundry list of “give-me” requests.  It’s a deepening in relationship so that we can become ever more like Christ.  When we ask for that, we will most surely receive.