Menus and Love Letters

Having had been a waitress or worked with food for *cough* a dozen restaurants, (KFC, -where I lasted two days- Pizza Hut, Grandma's, Pizza Inn, Macadoo's, Margarita Jone's, Starbucks,  Pottsville Club, Olde World, Friendly's, Roma, Max and Erma's), I find myself drawn to the way people place their orders.

You will always have the ones who cannot chose for the life of them...and the impatient line growing behind them.
The ones who always order the same thing. Over and over. And over again.
The opposites, who order something new every. single. time.
The faithfuls...like the daughter who was buying both her momma and herself a Venti, Mocha Frapp, (hold the whipped cream), 3x a day (!!). (quick math, that equals 6 drinks/day/7days in a week/4 weeks in a month/12 months in a year= She could own a Porsche!)

And then there are manners...
The time a pre-teen boy was yelling treats at his mother, (whom he was otherwise ignoring as he played on his cell phone) and whom I wanted to slam my fist down on the table and give "what for" to.
The people who are on their phones while trying to place an order.
The one's who say "please, may I..." and "thank you, sweetheart" in every other sentence.

As a waitress  -and let me tell ya', EVERYONE should have to be a server before graduating high school- you just hear so much about "me".
I want...
I'll have...
Give me...

On a Wednesday evening, with Zep in his red Cubbies vest and Demitri in his light blue Puggles shirt, each boy in his own class, I pushed baby Thatcher in his stroller across the back of the cafeteria and listened to Pastor Josh.

Prayer, he said, seems to come in two forms: menus and love letters.

Wow.

Boy, I thought, is he right.   

                                                              wallpaper4god.com
When we approach God in prayer...when we have the gusto to call on His Name...when we come to Him, sometimes as a third or fourth or even last-case scenario, we come with an expectation. When we do this, is the expectation that God, Whom we sometimes equate to as a magic genie, is going to hear our demand and respond? Is our expectation that God owes us something? 

Or, can it be, that we come before God and do so in humility?
That we remember how small we are and how big He is.
That He is God, and we are not.
That God is good ALL THE TIME, even in our circumstances...even in cancer. divorce. death.
That we are mindful that God gives and God takes away. 

Jesus taught us how to pray in the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6:9–13

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

If this is Bible 101 for you, let's take a moment and dissect this:

Our Father in heaven,        

(Who He is, Where He is)

hallowed be your name.   

(Who and how He is, holy)

Your kingdom come,

(Your glory, God)

your will be done,

(Your desires, God, what You know is best)

on earth, as it is in heaven.

(As You rule in perfect justice and love in Heaven, may You be invited to do so here on earth as well) 

First, we are to be reminding God of Who He Is!
Does He need us to adore Him? Not exactly, but we ought to! 
When we truly know how great God is, how beautiful, and merciful, and holy, how can we help but speak such praise!?
We are placing Him into the place of leadership in our lives, not ourselves. We are surrendering to Him, in confidence that He is for us and works all things for good!

Give us this day our daily bread,

(give us what we need...and further, Jesus is "The Bread of Life" (John 6:35), so, give us Jesus)

and forgive us our debts,

(forgive us, because we are faulty people) 

 

Next we ask for the desires of our heart. (This would be the healing of pain, financial breakthroughs, etc.) We do this, once again, in humility, remembering that we are sinful people, and God owes us nothing! It is in His grace that He should love us and hear our prayers!

 

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

(and we are mindful to forgive others, because it is Your will and to Your glory)

 

Because we are selfish, rude, impatient, ...murderous, adulterous, conniving, ...we must forgive others so that we also can be forgiven.

 

And lead us not into temptation,

(and help us)

but deliver us from evil.

(protect and deliver us to You)

          Again, acknowledging that God is good. He is our Light, our salvation. And asking Him to                 remind us of that daily, so that we never forget our first love.


So...speaking of loves..... When we are in love with someone, desiring to show that person affection... smiling at... wishing desperately to be with... delighting in that person. These things come naturally. Why not also -and so much more- with the God of all creation?    

We speak of our love for Him, to Him, not because we are fulfilling an obligation, but because it flows out from us!!! Because He is worthy of all our praise!

Friends, when we are praying to God Almighty, creator of the heavens and the earth, do we do so as those who do not know this great love, do? With demands and self-righteousness? Or do we do so in humility, reminding both God and ourselves of Who He is. Loving the One who first loved us?

Think about this. Consider yourself. And pray for humility. 
-yours,