Why Pray If You Can Fix It?

by HJS

Abraham Lincoln, the American president who faced tremendous personal struggles in his life, once said, "I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go."

And it often takes just that before you are willing to pray. To have to say, "God, I'm at the end of myself and I have nowhere else to turn," is humiliating. If you can fix something yourself, you can then sit back and say, "Hey, look what I did. I'm actually pretty good."

"I'd rather do it myself," we say, hesitant to ask God to do what we cannot. Stubborn, fierce independence always militates against prayer, yet the stark reality is that there are a lot of things that you cannot fix!

How do you overcome your position of weakness? You don't. But it helps to understand that God is not expecting you to come as an equal, to drive a deal with Him, agreeing that if He bails you out of your problem, you'll do something equally helpful to Him in return.

Grace comes from the hand of a loving, compassionate Father who delights in meeting you at the point of your need. Only willful, misplaced, senseless pride and arrogance keep you from knocking at the door of grace. Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but yours.

You do not have, because you do not ask God.  JAMES 4:2