I just saw an ad for “Frozen hot chocolate.” To me hot chocolate is something wonderful on cold winter nights, sipped slowly in front of a roaring fireplace, wrapped in a cozy quilt, soft candlelight bathing the room in a warm glow. Okay, I’m a hopeless romantic, but hot chocolate should be hot … shouldn’t it? Doesn’t freezing hot chocolate defeat the entire purpose?
The silliness of freezing something designed to be hot made me chuckle. It reminded me of an old Burns and Allen routine when George caught Gracie freezing boiling water so she’d always have boiling water in the freezer when she needed it. Made a great comedy routine.
There are some situations though where defeating a purpose doesn’t make such a great comedy routine, such as defeating the purpose of prayer by worry or anxiety. The very nature of prayer is to make our requests known to God and to converse with Him about our cares and concerns. Paul tells us to “not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” [Philippians 4:6]
Once our prayers and requests are offered to God, we should at that point be relieved of the burden. To continue to worry and be anxious over the very things we have offered to Him is to defeat the very reason we prayed. It is like “freezing” hot chocolate.
Does God immediately answer every prayer in the way and in the timing we think He should? Not always. But God does answer every prayer in His way and in His timing. That is His prerogative.
Our job is to not defeat the purpose, but to be thankful and trust that He has our eternal interests at heart, He sees beyond the temporal into the eternal, and He knows the end before there is even a beginning.
