… with all kinds of prayers and requests.
Summary: Looking for success is a common American ambition. Sometimes, when people find success, they become slaves to what they find.
In 1970, just before dying of a drug overdose, Janis Joplin recorded a song called simply “Mercedes Benz.” I don’t know Joplin’s history well enough to offer comments on what was in her mind when she wrote it. Was she just being funny? Was she commenting on society at large? Was she offering her take on the shallowness of wants?
The song speaks for itself.
“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends…”
The bluesy lyrics take us on a wishful shopping spree for a “color TV” (back in the day, color televisions were considered a real luxury!), a “night on the town,” and finally winding up with “the next round.”
Vain, self-absorbed, and hungry for “things,” the lyrics point to a soul out of touch with the gifts God wants to give us.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5: 22-23)
Janis died at age twenty-seven, just a few days after recording her song about “things.” From the reports I’ve read, she died alone, looking for love, lacking joy, and hungry for peace. She might have been kind, and some people might have considered her “good,” but her drug use testifies that she lacked self-control.
The point of looking back at a sad young woman, lost in a world she no longer recognized, is not to judge her but to look at our own lives through the words of her song.
How do the things we ask of God align with God’s will for us? Are we asking for “things” that we need or “things” that we want? It is not that God doesn’t want to give us things we need and want, but if the “things” we are asking for serve our inner “self” and draw us away from God, I doubt that our Father is going to grant that request.
Even though Jesus says, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matthew 21:22), James writes, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (Jame 4:3).
Is this a contradiction?
No. If we believe, we want to please our Lord, Jesus. If we are working to serve our Lord, what we ask for will be just what he wants us to ask for.
Application: Keep our eyes on Jesus.
Food for Thought: What does what we ask God for say about us?
Thanks brother. Really good devotion and really good question.
What we ask God for reveals a lot about our walk with Him. Do we only ask for “things”? Do we ever worship Him, seek how we can serve Him and others in prayer, intercede for others more than ourselves, etc.? Does what God ask us to pray for according to the Lord’s Prayer look like what we pray for? Do we confess sins, ask for forgiveness, forgive others, seek His will on this earth, ask for victory over temptation, and yes – our daily bread also?
If we look back and take inventory of our prayer life, I think it helps us to evaluate if our priorities look something like His priorities.
The evaluation can also reveal our spiritual growth as we see our priorities aligning with His more and more.
Rich,
You remind me of an admonition I’ve heard over the years: If you want to know what your priorities are, look at your calendar and your checkbook. You’ve expanded on that to suggest, “If you want to know what your priorities before God are, check your prayer journal.”
I like that idea. Another thought that comes to mind as I read over your list of things to pray about is the question, “Am I praying enough?”
Do I take enough to God in prayer?
Thank you for your insightful comment!
I agree with Rich: really good devotion and really good question, and I liked his response.
Your question brought to my mind Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
I like your question because it is one that contains a poignant light of truth. In a sense, the question is it’s own answer. It is one that might make one feel condemnation, but I think it is more of invitation. One might look at what they ask God for and feel like they are “doing it wrong” and then try and “do it right.” Jesus gave us instruction in prayer not so that we could recite words, but so that when we can approach Him in our vulnerability and find strength in our relationship with Him, those words have life in our heart. His Word has life in our hearts. The Lord looks beyond the words and looks at the condition of our heart. What we ask for speaks to where our treasure lies.
Thank you, Chris.
Nicely said! What we ask God for does reveal what we value, and what we value says everything about who we are.
Well said!
Appreciate today’s devotion and comments. Thank You All.
11-15-2923, What does what we ask God for say about us?
Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 22:37-39, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself “
We begin our lives in Christ between the two of these. Self rule, according to our flesh seeking whatever we have determined will add to our stature, power among mankind. Or Spirit ruled as we enter the process of transformation, and increasingly give ourselves to the Holy Spirit, dying to our physical desires of the flesh and growing in the Spirit, allowing Christ in us to serve others as He determines.
As time passes, ( with me 46 years ) believers, growing in Christ find ourselves less concerned for ourselves and more prayerfully, and physically concerned for others. Our personal needs are all given to, cared for by God and our awareness of the problems of others becomes a priority.
Ron,
Thank you! I appreciate the picture you paint of moving from self-rule to serving others, and at the same time serving Jesus. It can be a bumpy transition, but it is oh-so satisfying as we move closer into harmony with our Lord.