Tuesday, August 17, 2010

He likes to be asked

Hello everybody! Sorry it's been a while, anyways...
Points if you know where this quote is from, bonus points if you know who said it, here's the full quote:
"Wouldn't he know without being asked?' said Polly. 'I've no doubt he would,' said the Horse (still with his mouth full). 'But I've a sort of idea he likes to be asked.
Okay, so this is from The Magicians Nephew by CS Lewis (as most, if not all of you probably already knew) and it has kind of gotten me thinking, which sometimes does actually lead to something good (at least I hope it does). So, I've been thinking along these lines for a couple days, even before I remembered the quote. A lot of times I get kind of upset with God because He doesn't seem to be listening to me, but I started realizing that most of the time it was because I wasn't asking anything. I was just going along, knowing God knew everything about me, knew what I was thinking and would just work with that, it didn't really matter if I prayed about stuff or not, because God already knew... Right? Well... yes... and no, God does know everything about you and what you're going through and all that, but God doesn't want to be some impersonal machine just cranking out everything we need and sending it down when he sees we need it. God wants to be asked. Although, I kind of have to add a disclaimer, just because you're praying for stuff doesn't mean you'll get it, God will do what's best for us, and that can mean holding something back that we really want. Like no sane person would give a baby a lit candle or something like that, even though the baby may really want it, by not allowing that baby to hold the candle you are protecting it from something it doesn't understand. In time, as the baby grows up, it's able to understand more and is able to hold the candle without burning itself.
I really have two main things in this post, and surprisingly, both have CS Lewis quotes! Here's the second one (even more bonus points if you know where it's from, although it's rather easy)

"My dear Wormwood, the most alarming thing in your last account of the patient is that he is making none of those confident resolutions which marked his original conversion. No more lavish promises of perpetual virtue, I gather; not even the expectation of an endowment of 'grace' for life, but only a hope for the daily and hourly pittance to meet the daily and hourly temptation! This is very bad."

As you can probably guess this is from The Screwtape Letters, from Uncle Screwtape to his nephew, Another thing that I did was just go "Dear God, please give me all the peace, hope, joy, long suffering etc. that I'll need for the rest of my life. Thank you. Amen" Okay, it wasn't really like that but the meaning was the same, pray one prayer at the beginning and then just sit back and relax... Uh, no. Sorry, doesn't work like that. God isn't selling some "Cures-All Character Defects" magic ointment, which you only need to replace at Christmas and Easter. I know that I kind of covered this is the last section, but I have really started praying a lot more, I'm not trying to brag, and I think the real reason is that I've started realizing that I need a lot more, and also just asking for stuff like self-control, when I need it, instead of putting in an order the night before.
Anyways, sorry that was kind of long, I hope it prove useful to someone.
Endurance and Victory!
Chris

2 comments:

whisper said...

I read this post of yours a few months ago and liked it; now I by chance found it and read it again. It's a good post, Chris, and it inspired me. Thanks for writing it!

-whisper

Romans 12:2 said...

Wow! A great message expressed very well! Good words, quotes, and analogies.