A Sign From Heaven

The first section of today’s reading (Matthew 16) got me thinking: I wonder if some of our prayers have the same substance and texture as the Pharisee’s and Saducee’s request for Jesus to show them a sign from Heaven?

Obviously we’re supposed to pray, and we’re told to bring all our cares to God, but perhaps sometimes the motives driving our prayers make them uncomfortably like their demand for a sign? Maybe because we really just want God to prove Himself to us, or because of the cynicism behind the request, or because of the total selfishness of it.

Lately I’ve been reading through some of my prayer journals, and worrying that maybe sometimes my theology is determined a bit by my circumstances. (Like, if God doesn’t answer my prayers and things don’t go the way I know they should, what’s wrong with God?) I need to pray, and make my requests, but not demand answers, and just have the faith to let God be God.