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Is there ever a bad reason to ask for prayer?
Here's what I mean by this. I got a cold this week. It's trivial, but what it does to me isn't. Basically, getting a cold always makes my chronic digestion problem flare up, and so that won't get better until the cold is gone. Which effectively means that my workdays are absolutely miserable for a week or more. The very thing that aggravates my guts, once they've flared up, more than anything is sitting or standing--which I do at work all day. I only have two choices: 1. deal with it, or 2. take personal leave and go home. I don't really ever take option 2 anymore, because I know what my chronic problem is, and I know it's not serious. Basically, I know I can suffer through it--it's just miserable. Today, I know that I'm going to feel horrible all afternoon, and I know that it's going to start back up tomorrow morning and that tomorrow afternoon will likely be even worse than today. There's nothing I can do about that.
As far as prayer is concerned, I almost never ask for prayer for this condition. I've "given up" on it, I suppose you could say, but it's not with bitterness toward God or anything. I think I've made peace with the fact that He hasn't chosen to remove it, and I know I can live with it. (I have already, for a long time.)
For example, I email my wife some throughout the day, and sometimes she'll say she's praying for me when I say that my guts are really bothering me that day. My first natural thought is, "don't bother," and I hate that. That can't be the right thought.
If I pray for it myself, typically what I'll pray is "just help me get through this." And so in that sense my prayer is always answered...because I do always get through it.
So I want to know what you think about asking for prayer for relatively trivial stuff, like this. This chronic problem is such a part of my life that it's hard for me to tell if I'm being too defeatist about it.
Here's what I mean by this. I got a cold this week. It's trivial, but what it does to me isn't. Basically, getting a cold always makes my chronic digestion problem flare up, and so that won't get better until the cold is gone. Which effectively means that my workdays are absolutely miserable for a week or more. The very thing that aggravates my guts, once they've flared up, more than anything is sitting or standing--which I do at work all day. I only have two choices: 1. deal with it, or 2. take personal leave and go home. I don't really ever take option 2 anymore, because I know what my chronic problem is, and I know it's not serious. Basically, I know I can suffer through it--it's just miserable. Today, I know that I'm going to feel horrible all afternoon, and I know that it's going to start back up tomorrow morning and that tomorrow afternoon will likely be even worse than today. There's nothing I can do about that.
As far as prayer is concerned, I almost never ask for prayer for this condition. I've "given up" on it, I suppose you could say, but it's not with bitterness toward God or anything. I think I've made peace with the fact that He hasn't chosen to remove it, and I know I can live with it. (I have already, for a long time.)
For example, I email my wife some throughout the day, and sometimes she'll say she's praying for me when I say that my guts are really bothering me that day. My first natural thought is, "don't bother," and I hate that. That can't be the right thought.
If I pray for it myself, typically what I'll pray is "just help me get through this." And so in that sense my prayer is always answered...because I do always get through it.
So I want to know what you think about asking for prayer for relatively trivial stuff, like this. This chronic problem is such a part of my life that it's hard for me to tell if I'm being too defeatist about it.
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