There is an unintentional misstep we often make when we ask God for help. We ask God for something but never really give Him anything to work with. When Jesus fed five-thousand hungry followers, Andrew brought Jesus something to work with. The rest of the group were giving Jesus the run down of the challenges of feeding this many people. But Andrew brought a young boy to Jesus who had five loaves of bread and a couple of fishes. Andrew presented Jesus with something to bless no matter how small it seemed.
There is always something we can do when we are asking God to do something for us. If we ask God to bless our resources, we might further our education or enhance our skill-sets. We might even want to take a risk and launch a new initiative. If we are repairing or strengthening difficult relationships we can evaluate what we have done to contribute to the tensions we are feeling. We can make changes and ask God to help us to make more changes if needed. We could also seek advice from professional therapists or spiritual counselors and give the whole process to God. If we are asking God for strength and direction to overcome the past and change the way we do things in the future, we could set aside daily quiet-time for the Scriptures, prayer and reflection to receive the strength and guidance to make better decisions.
I guess the thought here is, we should pray and do something practical to make things better while we are waiting for God’s blessing.
Joseph C. Hutchison