What do you want from me?

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There was a famous Afrikaans author who wrote: "'n Halwe begryper het 'n goeie woord nodig." It means that someone who only partially understands something needs a clear, encouraging, or well-chosen explanation to grasp it fully. He wrote this as a tongue-in-cheek play on a well-known Afrikaans saying that goes: "'n Goeie begrip het 'n halwe woord nodig," which means that someone who has good understanding only needs half an explanation to get the message.

Which one of these describe God best? Does he understand our prayers easily and quickly, or does he need detailed, well-worded, explanatory prayers to understand our needs and desires?

My first thought was that he is able to understand us and our needs easily and quickly; sometimes even without the need for words or even knowing exactly what we want in the first place (Isaiah 65:24; Matthew 6:32; Romans 8:26-27). He is, after all, God: the Creator of all living things (Colossians 1:16), the One who knows our thoughts before we speak them, and who knew us before we were born (139:1-5, 13-16).

Why, then, did Jesus ask the blind beggars he was about to heal, what they wanted from him (Matthew 20:32; Mark 10:51; Luke 18:41)? He would most certainly have known their needs better than they?

I'm not 100% sure. I have experienced Jesus asking me the same thing in my own prayer life. Sometimes I get the sense that I need to pray about things with more specificity than I normally would. Like asking God for a lump sum of money (as I normally would) vs. asking him for the money to pay off debt, get the car fixed, provide for the family's wider needs, maybe buy a house with a garden, etc. (which is more specific).

Or praying for a friend to have good health (as I normally would) vs. praying for the specific condition that they need healing from, their family to be taken care of, and for a good and steady recovery (which is more specific).

I don't know why God expects this type of specific prayers at times, and not so much at other times, but I am happy to oblige. I don't think it makes a difference to how God answers those prayers, but it makes a difference to how I pray. 

I don't think there's a set way to come to Jesus and ask him for things, whether in broad strokes, or with great particularity. The important thing is that we come to him. The blind beggars started by asking Jesus to have mercy on them. Jesus asked them what exactly they want from him, and they explained their needs from their perspective.

I think there's something liberating about this interaction with Jesus. We can come to him with our needs and desires, no matter what they are, in all honesty, and he will hear us out. There's no judgment when we come to Jesus sincerely. Not as far as I can tell. C.S. Lewis summed it up better than I ever can: 

"We must lay before him what is in us; not what ought to be in us."

So my encouragement to you is this: Cry out to Jesus as you are with the words or sighs you have -nothing more, nothing less- and see where he takes you from there.

Photo by NADER AYMAN on Unsplash


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