Frustration at the Auto Parts Store

And the king said to the man of God, “Entreat now the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” 1 Kings 13:6

Years ago, when we moved to the lake and I first began to venture out on the water, I bought a canoe and a little electric motor to push me around the lake in search of walleyes. That next spring, when I got my electric motor out and something didn’t work, I thought I’d pull it apart and try to fix it myself. I had no idea what I was looking at, but something appeared corroded, so I set off to the auto parts store to find what I thought was called a bushing. After several unsuccessful attempts at several different stores, I grew frustrated. The guys at the auto parts store just didn’t seem to know what they were doing. It turns out however, that I was looking for brushes, not bushings. As long as I searched for electric motor brushes, while calling them bushings, at an auto parts store, I was going to find only frustration because I was asking all wrong.

It usually has nothing to do with electric motors, but I often do something similar when I pray. This mistake is illustrated in today’s passage, in which King Jeroboam set up false golden idols for his people to worship. Offended, God sent a prophet to confront Jeroboam which annoyed the king. Intending to silence the prophet, the king stretched out his arm and pointed, but as he gave the command, Jeroboam’s arm dried and shriveled. Recognizing that this was from God, a now-frightened Jeroboam begged the prophet to intervene. Fix my arm! The king comprehended God’s power, but he failed to address the actual problem. Jeroboam’s prayer at this point should have been one of repentance, but being terminally self-centered, he prayed only for his arm to be healed. Once his arm was restored, he went back to business as usual, missing the whole point of his terrible offence before God.

When confronted with any hardship, my prayer is usually similar to Jeroboam’s – Fix this! I know from the Bible and from experience however, that God often uses trials to shape me. In the trial I just want out. So, I usually ask God to fix my problem when I should be asking God to fix me. Recovery and maturity then, has meant learning to pray for God’s will. I’m not perfect at it, but I am learning that, in the trial, I must pray first not for what I want, but rather, for what God wants. To get the right answer, I must first learn to ask the right question.