One Prayer That Will Never Be Answered

A. 1 Tim. 1:14-16. There is at least one prayer that will never be answered, and that is the
request to be somebody else. Sometimes we think the grass is greener somewhere else. And we can suppose that life would be easier if we were somebody else. We know it's impossible to change places with someone else and have their lifestyle. But, people have been known to wish that God would transform them in such a way that their past is erased, personal circumstances altered, and maybe that would make it easier for them to serve God faithfully.
1. As for our past, God can do wonders about it. But, He cannot make our past anything other than what it is. He can do things in the present that are greater than anything that has happened in our past. But, even then, the past will still be the past, and we will still be who we are. If our prayer is to be anything other than the unique package of problems and possibilities that we are, that prayer will never be answered. We can never be anyone other than who we are. The sooner we give up on that false hope, the sooner we can get busy cooperating with God's plan for ourselves.
2. After Paul became a Christian, after having persecuted the church, he marveled the rest
of his life that God could be so merciful him. In his preaching, he used himself as an
example of how patient, loving and forgiving God can be. But Paul didn’t waste his
time wishing to be some one else. He served God thankfully and diligently within the
limits of his own life. We need to see what Paul seemed to see. It is not necessary to be
somebody else. What is necessary is to be determined to make the right choices in life.
Be who you are even with all the scars and limitations that are yours. It is impossible to
do otherwise. God is not the God of imaginary beings. He is the God of real people in all
their flawed varieties. It is as Henry Ward Beecher wrote, “If a man cannot be a Christian
in the place where he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere.”
b. Acts 20:32.

Spur - 09/28/03 pm