Prayer Works in Funny Ways. Trust Me, I Should Know.

You would think I’d know this by now, but prayer sometimes works in funny ways. I have a short story about such an occurrence: 

Earlier this year, I began my job search since I don’t want to miss my daughter Caeli growing up with me staying on the graveyard shift and never getting to play with her daddy. During the hunt, I started praying for a little bit more money to ease some of our financial burdens, some self-inflicted (baby’s first Christmas) and others were seasonal, such as the January gas bill. I applied – and somehow – got to interview for two lateral positions within the company. Although I felt like both meetings were productive, I was not hired for either role; instead, my boss gave me a bit of a raise presumably to stay in my current place.

Fast forward four months to the “lil’ mo’ money” part.

My co-worker became seriously ill and has missed the past month of work meaning that someone had to step in to fill his spot.

Guess who that fill-in person was? Me.

At this posting I have worked 31 of the past 34 nights with the first 21 nights toiled consecutively. My new schedule began Monday morning, and while it is marginally better than working to live, I still have to punch the clock for six nights on with one night off each week. The overtime money is much needed and greatly appreciated to catch up on our bills along with building up some savings, but where I failed in this series of prayers was I had not been specific enough in my requests. Let me make myself VERY CLEAR that this is not prosperity gospel! What I was asking for (the money alone) should have been for the opportunity with the money and better (read: salaried, Monday through Friday, 8-4 around $40K annually and good health insurance) hours for a decent quality of life for my family and to continue effective ministry to magnify the name of Jesus.

When the Bible isn't being preached in your churches, this can happen pic.twitter.com/2rfIT3epBa

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) June 26, 2016

Lesson learned:  Unspecified prayers are answered sometimes in the way we want them to be, even if they aren’t exactly how we envision God’s fulfillment.

We all know I would rather be a paid blogger these days even as the freelance technical writer experience winds down to a close, but perhaps something way better is coming over the horizon. Is having a barbecue trailer one of those next moves?

When we pray, it is a conversation between us and God. We don’t have to use all of the fancy titles passed down from one generation to the next to address Him; He responds to us directly in three ways:

1.      Yes

2.      No

3.      Hold up, I’ve got something better for you

Of course, yes means yes. But do we really want everything to be a “yes”?

Surely Our Father is not a magic genie who grants us everything we want when we want it. Remember when we were kids in elementary school when the teacher had us do a math problem on the blackboard? Those of you who went to Ida Burns certainly did, and even if we didn’t know the answer, we marched up to the chalkboard and scratched up something. In Mrs. Jones’s fourth grade class, feigning ignorance over division with remainders sometimes cost us recess – ask me about that one. It was just hard and I didn’t get it at the time. I tried to pray my way out of going up one afternoon and still had to solve the problem which surprisingly, I got right! Had He let the 3:30 dismissal bell ring as she was getting around to calling upon me, then I may not have had an appreciation of those prayers granted to me and essentially treated Him like the benevolent older neighbor who let us have anything we wanted in the candy store.

In Acts 12:1-17, we are aware of not only the Apostle James’s death by the hand of Herod but also Peter’s imprisonment and subsequent escape. Peter was to stay shackled in his cell until after Easter when he would be brought in front of the people and publicly executed. During his stay, the church was deeply vigilant in their prayers for his freedom; the night before his planned demise, an angel awakened him, told him to get dressed and follow him. Peter complied, and once he made it out of the city, the angel departed from him and left the Apostle dumbfounded. Similar to our own instincts, he had no reaction to the instant he was brought out of his storm until he thought about it for a while. Then he walked over to Mary’s house to both visit with the praying members and show them how God satisfied their prayer requests.

What if God tells me no?

Initially we tend to get upset when we are denied what we want – or think we want. For example, I’ll talk about a pair of Nike Air Jordan basketball sneakers I really wanted in sixth grade. I wanted them so badly the shoes became a bit of an art class project one Saturday morning! As the story goes, my parents’ washer quit working and we got to make a rare trip to the laundromat one Saturday morning. My art teacher had given this assignment of shadowing in black-and-white due the following Tuesday, and guess what happened to be around the corner from the laundromat? The shoe store! It was one of two retailers that carried the Air Jordan brand in town, and this one had the exact style I wanted. Sure enough, I marched in the store with my art pad, kid brother, and two pencils and asked the store clerk to see a pair once I explained the gist of this project. After a bit of coaxing, she went to the back and returned with a size 9 pair. Once I got started drawing the sneakers, people came in and out to view my progress as they shopped for baseball equipment for the upcoming season. Unbeknownst to me, the high school varsity and junior high teams received all of their equipment from this store – this is life before Eastbay – and as I crafted what was then my greatest piece of artwork, head and assistant coaches stopped by for brief moments of observation and chit-chat. Two hours later, I was finished with the project, thanked the clerk, and was on my way out the door. My parents noticed the meticulous effort I had put forth and inquired if that was the shoe I wanted. Absolutely, I exclaimed. All I had to do was keep straight A’s for the next quarter.

Shoe of my childhood dreams until I finally owned a pair

Did I get the shoes?

No.

I held my bargain and remained on the “A” honor roll. Unfortunately, life got in the way and I settled for a cheap pair of L.A. Gear walking shoes to finish the school year.

I did finally own a pair of the Air Jordan V shoes – seventeen years later – and it didn’t take long to understand why the poorly made shoe was not a good idea at $125 in 1990 alone the $200+ people shelled out at Foot Locker or Champs in 2007. I sadly found out after draining a three-pointer at the McGee Center back home during a Saturday morning pickup game when the heel separated from the rest of the shoe.

I swear I about to mess around and get me a triple-double!

In James 4:3, God defends His denial of prayer requests succulently:  You didn’t come correct. You’re doing this to fulfill your self-serving desires, so I have to tell you nope. It would be one thing if the requests were those that promote the Kingdom instead of our little fiefdoms, but we are so narcissistic that even when our brothers are dying for the faith, we cannot see anything beyond the tips of our noses!

Matter of fact, He waves the Mutombo finger toward us when we get rejected at the proverbial rim. Not in my house!

You won’t believe this one, but even Jesus was told no by God. Reference Matthew 20:21-23 for the conversation He held with Zebedee’s ole lady.

What happens when God tell me to hold up? Is it like when Paul Wall told Kanye West to pump the brakes and drive slow?

When God says hold up, it usually is because He has something better for us. Sometimes He’s keeping us out of certain trouble such as jail time, negative dings on our credit reports, whoopings both physical and spiritual, strained relationships, troubled marriages, or tarnishing our family names by engaging in untoward conduct.

Within our prayer closets hang a certain confidence that we strut around in after leaving our prayers and lamentations in the hamper due to knowing that God hears our every petition we make. Because we know He hears us, we know that our prayers are being heard. 1 John 5:14-15 illustrate our transformation from meek to full of “swagu” (the Holy Spirit) and ready for whatever comes our way. We may not get our answers immediately – or in what we consider a long time, but the solution that God presents us is always the best one.

Furthermore, waiting on God teaches us patience; sometimes, we only require a little and in other instances, we could use the virtue in spades. A major example of developing patience is driving in rush hour traffic:  In the ebbs and flows of stop-and-go interstate traffic, learning to hold up before flipping the bird at the Bro-dozer owner who just cut you off doing 85 on the freeway can serve you greatly down the road – and today, it could very save a ticket or accident.

I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. – Psalm 40:1

Want proof that God works wonders when He says hold up? Look at David’s life. When the underdog defeated Goliath, it was only after his brothers all went to battle against the Philistine and lost assuring the Israelites their king was coming from humble beginnings and an all-around great dude. During most of his life, the temple was built in Jerusalem and the people grew in stature; even when he lusted after Beersheba and had her husband killed in war, David continually maintained a strong prayer relationship with God.

Whoops, that wasn’t such a short story as I originally anticipated.

Trust me when I say I should know that prayer works in funny ways.