Reflections

I was struck a few days ago in my Bible reading by these verses from 1 John 5: 13-15

13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. 14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.

First question I had for myself was,"What kind of prayer pleases God?".  And then,"Do my prayers line up with the type of prayer that would please God?"  and then... "If not, why not?" followed by "What would it take to change my prayers to ones that would please God?"

So often, I'm guilty of praying something like: "Dear Jesus, please take this pain away. Amen." But what of that prayer pleases God?  I don't see any trust in that prayer. I don't see any glorification OF God in that prayer. I mean... obviously if taking my pain away would glorify God the most, I'm sure He would do that... but so far He hasn't seen that taking away my pain would glorify Him more than allowing me to continue in pain would. I believe that praying that God would be glorified in this situation IS a prayer that would please Him, and I'm inclined to pray in that way, rather than "give me this, give me that, take away this", etc.  So, we'll see.  Whatever happens, I just want need God to do a major work in my heart.