February 4, James 4:3

“Mom!” called Anna. She was making party invitations on the computer. “Something’s wrong!” Mom came and looked over her shoulder. “See?” Anna pointed to two words at the top of the screen. “It says, ‘Invalid request.’ What does that mean?”

“It means you pressed a key that asked the computer to do something it’s not programmed to do,” explained Mom. “Here… I’ll get you going again.” Mom helped Anna, and soon the invitations were nicely printed.

Anna could hardly wait for the day of her party – and when she prayed, she even asked God to make her party the best party ever! But it wasn’t. It stormed the day of the party, Anna’s best friend was sick and couldn’t come, and Patty spilled fruit juice on the carpet and went home in tears! “What a flop!” moaned Anna when the last guest had gone. “All the while I’ve been hearing how nice Yeen Leng’s party was, and I wanted mine to be better than hers. I don’t like that girl and so I even prayed mine would be better!”

Mom stopped her washing and looked at her daughter in surprise. “You prayed that your party would be better than Yeen Leng’s because you don’t like her?” she repeated.

“Well…” Anna looked a little embarrassed. “It’s just that I’m tired of hearing the girls talk about how wonderful hers was.”

Mom looked thoughtful. “Anna,” she said after a moment, “do you remember the ‘invalid request’ you made on the computer when you were getting the invitations ready? When you made that request you didn’t get what you asked for. Now, I certainly don’t mean to insult God by comparing Him to a computer, but I’m afraid your prayer was an invalid request, too.”

Anna sighed. “You mean I shouldn’t have prayed for a good party?”

“It was okay to pray for a good party,” Mom said, “but I’m afraid you were asking for the wrong reasons. God’s Word says that when we pray with the wrong motives, like our own selfish reasons, we won’t get what we ask for.”

Thought: Will the things you pray for bring blessing to others and honour to God?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for teaching me not to expect you to answer my prayers when I pray with selfish motives. Please help me to be consistent in reading the Bible to discern your will and directions for my life so that I can be correctly motivated. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.