Vending Machine   

You will have no test of faith that will not fit you to be a blessing if you are obedient to the Lord. I never had a trial but when I got out of the deep river I found some poor pilgrim on the bank that I was able to help by that very experience. A.B. Simpson

I was listening to the radio this morning and the song that was playing was talking about how sometimes the trials in this life are blessings in disguise.  Often that is hard for us to understand or at least it is for me.  When I am in the midst of the trial I am continually praying for God to get me out of it. 

The thing is, I have survived many trials in this life and once I have reached the other side of the trial I can clearly see that I am a better person for it.  There are still those times when we often treat God like a big vending machine in the sky.  We think that if we put in the exact change (in other words, pray exactly the right way), press the right button, (in other words, do enough works), we will get the prayer answered and get what we want. 

The problem with this kind of thinking is that we are going to often accidentally hit the wrong button and get something we really didn’t want (a difficult trial), we are also going to put our money in and hit the right button and we get nothing.  No change, no Ding Dong, notta. 

God isn’t a vending machine where we can input just the right amount of prayer or do exactly the right amount of works and we get what we ask for.  We have to always remember that God knows what is best for us better than we do.  There will be times when we don’t get what we ask for and other times where we will get nothing.  That doesn’t mean that God isn’t there or that he isn’t listening to our cries. He just knows us better than we know ourselves and he knows what is best for us.

I recently went to the vending machine in our building to get something to drink.  I put in the right amount of change and pressed the right button.  What fell out kind of surprised me.  I got a peach ice tea but I think it had been in that machine since it was installed.  The label peeled off in my hand when I picked the bottle up and the tea wasn’t clear, it was kind of murky.  The date on the bottle was the kicker.  It expired 2 years ago.  There are times when we need to be careful what we ask God for because we may just get it.   

“We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
And all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things.

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not,
This is not our home
It's not our home

What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise”
Lyrics and song by Laura Story

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I trust You to know what is best for me.  You know me better than I know myself and I want to learn to trust you with the trials in my life.  You have proven over and over again in my life that the trials bring me to a better place and make me a better person.  Help me to appreciate the trials in life and understand that they are the refining that needs to be done to make me more like Jesus.    

Scripture:    My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:2-5