The morning was young but my attitude wasn’t, it was the same one I had the day before and for several days prior to that. I didn’t want to go to work as the thought of battling my infected computer that had a popup problem had taken all the enthusiasm out of me. It seemed like such a waste of time to even try and go as the constant popping up of advertisements interrupted my work causing me to fall behind in my production.
Unable to fix the problem myself I was at the mercy of our computer department, unfortunately other issues around the office building kept taking precedence over my computer ailment. As I prayed that morning I asked the Lord for the patience needed to endure until the problem was solved.
As the day went on and the problem continued I found myself thinking about the annoying pest I had prayed for earlier that morning. Not too much into my thinking I started to wonder why I was even worried about it, I had prayed to the Lord, where was my trust, what happened to my faith in God. Suddenly I got this picture in my mind of putting up my prayer request on a dry erase board leaving it there long enough to present it to the Lord and then wipe it off with the dry rag of my attitude.
That’s not what faith is all about I told myself, I needed to give it to the Lord and keep it written on the dry erase board of my heart until God answered it then He could be the one to erase it off as “task completed.” My prayers needed to be in permanent ink, ones that were going to stay forever or long enough to get answered anyway. Having what it takes in my heart to wait for the Lord, for His will and His answers, going off His time schedule and not my own.
My prayers to the Lord matter to Him and they needed to matter to me. I had prayed to God for patience then it was up to me to honor that prayer and allow God to work within me. Thanks to the Lord I had what it took all along inside of me it was just up to me to release that and use it. Getting my thinking in the right perspective my attitude soon followed and the patience it took to wait for the computer guys to fix my workstation could be felt in my heart.
Instead of a wiped off board I had a prayer up there long enough to cause the dry erase ink to dehydrate to the point where it wasn’t going to come off at the first swipe of a circumstance or issue. I had learned that day that dry erase prayers should not be allowed in our lives, we need to know in our hearts that our prayers lay before the throne of God, they aren’t disregarded. They may take awhile to get answered but they are never forgotten. I had forgotten my prayer that morning in my attitude that showed up during the day due to my PC issue.
Sadly enough we get after God for not paying attention to our prayers when we are the ones who are not showing consideration to them as we should as we expect results within the deadline our heart has set or we ignore them all together as if they were never prayed. For sure we need to make the prayers in our hearts permanently written not so much for a sticky note for God but as a reminder to us that we have put this before the Lord and it needs to stay there.
Dear Heavenly Father thank you Lord that we can come before Your throne any time and leave prayers and petitions for You to answer. Forgive us Lord for the times in our lives that we write it out and erase it in one clean swipe, or knock at Your door long enough to drop them off and run failing to do our part in trusting in You as we faithfully present our request and await Your answers, Your time, Your Love. Thank you Lord for listening may we always do the same. Amen.
© 2006 by Karen J. Gillett
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