Do you ever pray, “Lord, I need You to ______?”
I think a lot of my prayers probably fit into that category. I need help with this. I need You to provide. I need You to heal. I need You to fix something in a relationship. Usually, I’m talking to God about the need that is right in front of me.
And I believe He wants to hear those prayers. But I’ve been thinking about what happens when that gets flipped around.
What about when God says, “I need you to ______?”
Maybe He is asking me to forgive someone. Maybe He wants me to help, to give, to speak up, or to love someone who is not easy to love. Sometimes what He asks is inconvenient. Sometimes it is uncomfortable. And sometimes I do not understand why He is asking me to do it.
Proverbs 20:24 says, “A person’s steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand their own way?”
I like that verse because it reminds me that I am not always going to understand the full picture.
When God asks something of me, He may be doing more than I can see. What feels like one small act of obedience today may matter in someone else’s life in a way I will never know. It may also be part of something God is doing in me.
So I am trying to pay attention not only to the things I am asking God to do, but also to what He may be asking of me.
Because His plans go farther than what I can see right now.