Daily Devotional for July 12, 2017
Invalid Request
“Mom!” called Piper. “I’m making party invitations on the computer, and something’s wrong!” Mom came and looked over her shoulder. “See?” Piper pointed to two words in the middle of the screen. “It says, ‘Invalid request.’ What does that mean?”
“It means you pressed a key that asked the computer to do something it’s not programmed to do,” explained Mom. “Here, I’ll get you going again.” Mom helped Piper, and soon the invitations to her party were nicely printed.
Piper could hardly wait for the day of the party. She wanted everything to be perfect. She even prayed and asked God to make her party the best one ever! But it wasn’t. It stormed on the day of the party, and some of the kids were sick and couldn’t come. Then Bria spilled punch on the carpet and went home in tears.
“What a flop!” said Piper when the last guest had left. “All summer I’ve been hearing about how much fun Elysia’s party was, and I wanted mine to be better than hers. I even prayed it would be.”
Mom stopped picking up plates and looked at her daughter in surprise. “You prayed that your party would be better than Elysia’s?”
“Well…” Piper looked a little embarrassed. “It’s just that I’m tired of hearing the girls talk about how great her party was.”
“Piper,” said Mom, “do you remember the invalid request you made on the computer when you were getting the invitations ready? When you made that request, you didn’t get what you asked for. Now, of course God is nothing like a computer, but I’m afraid your prayer was an invalid request too—it was selfish.”
“You mean I shouldn’t have prayed for a good party?” asked Piper.
“It was okay to pray for a good party, but you were asking for the wrong reasons. You didn’t ask for that because you wanted your friends to have a good time together, but because you wanted them to think more highly of you than Elysia. God’s Word says that when we pray with wrong motives—for our own selfish reasons—we probably won’t get what we ask for.”
Piper sighed. “You’re right. I guess I need to pray for something else—for Jesus to help me be less selfish and more loving.” – Trudy VanderVeen
How about you?
Do you pray for things that will bless others and shine a spotlight on Jesus? Or do you just pray for what you want when you want it? Jesus loves you and wants you to talk to Him about everything, but that doesn’t mean He will grant your requests when you pray for things out of selfishness. Read your Bible to get a better idea of what you should pray about and ask Him for those things.
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