“Knock and it shall be opened.’ But does knocking mean hammering and kicking the door like a maniac?” 
― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

We pray and pray at times for God to answer our prayers the way that we want them answered.  We yearn and we groan, and at times we call God cruel secretly in our hearts because of the lack of answered prayers.  Could it be that it isn’t so much about His answer but about our asking?  I cannot be calloused here to say to a dying person that it was God’s will for you to die…of course it wasn’t.  I am not saying either that God is harsh and wishes some to perish from physical afflictions, this is not the God I serve.  We do live in a fallen and temporal world in which diseases like cancer and AIDS prevail.  God weeps with those who mourn and comforts those who hurt…it was never His doing that would create such a sad predicament of man.  

But in terms of our every day prayers, we can become like a SWAT team attempting to kick in the front door of an assailant instead of humbling petitioning before God the needs of our lives.  It isn’t about our wants, but our needs that He will provide (which are according to His riches).  But sometimes in our asking (prayer) we become more like Veruca Salt.  Do you remember the spoiled character in Roald Dahl’s book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”?  Veruca Salt was a salty, spoiled brat who was given anything her heart desired.  This led to her downfall within the Chocolate factory, because her father could not give her something which didn’t belong to him.  Sometimes our asking prayers can seem like a spoiled little brat, I don’t mean to sound condescending because I too have asked like this.  Then when the answer doesn’t come to us the way that we wanted it, we flail on the floor and cry like a child desperately in need of  some discipline.  

How is your prayer life?  Are you approaching the throne of God with reverence and fear or are you Veruca Salt, intent on kicking down the front door if you have to?  Take an inventory of your prayer life, be mindful that God does listen to us and He will provide to those who ask in faith and that which brings glory and honor to Him.