We have all probably heard the story about the man that was in a flood and as the waters rose he got up on his roof. He prayed to God “Oh Lord save me from this mess!” Just then a boat came by and offered to give him a ride. He said, “No thanks, the Lord will save me!” So the boat moved on. A little while later a helicopter hovered over the roof and offered to throw a lifeline to him. He again shouted at the copter “No thanks, The Lord will save me!” Finally the waters rose and the man drown. He died and went to heaven where he met the Lord. He said, “Lord, what in the world? How come you didn’t save me?” Jesus answered “What else did you want me to do? I heard your cry and I sent a boat and a helicpoter, but you refused them!”
My friend Jeff and I were chatting this last week about life and how sometimes it doesn’t seem like God answers our prayers. We both faced some challenges and were discussing them when he said something that made me think. He said “I pray to God at times, on why things don’t happen, but if I look at it, I have not done enough to put myself in a spot for him to help.”
Immediately I thought of that joke and about the self serve soda dispensers in some of our local fast food restaurants. We have the drink all paid for, and we can even go back for refills, but if we simply sit on our butt and never walk over to the dispenser we will go thirsty. So we need to do our part.
We can’t expect that if we pray and ask God for something that he will just have it fall in our laps. We need to, first of all, make sure our prayer isn’t self serving and then ask ourselves where we need to be to receive the blessings of God. If we need a job, then have we applied at places? Have we filled out the paperwork? Have we made it a point to go around and talk with the folks that we need too? We can’t just sit and home and wait for a phone call.
Or maybe it’s a health struggle. Changes need to be made, but we are unwilling to make them. How can God heal us if we ignore our responsibility? He is not a big candy man in the sky. He gave us a brain and the ability to do his will, so it goes without saying that we should probably be obedient to at least attempt to position ourselves in a place to receive his blessings.
This applies in about all areas of life. We should be asking for God’s help with life, but we need to be willing to do our part as well. A lot of times we will blame God for bad things that happen in life, when He never wanted that for us. The question is, are we under the dispenser? Or are we still sitting at the table hoping that somehow magically our drink will show up?
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