Why Don't We Expect What We Ask For?

Tonight's dorm meeting was just ... wow. It was the closest thing to a spark of revival at Boyce, period. The level of authenticity was just so real, including Ryan's amazing narrative and the open mic of testimony. People were being open about deep secrets from their pasts, struggles in the present, and hopes for the future. I left the service moved, convicted, and refreshed.

In my excitement to share with those who were not there to experience it, I told James McCray what happened. I told him how revival had almost broken out, how it was so amazing, so real. He asked me if I was expecting this. I said no, I wasn't. He then hit me upside the head with this remark.

"We just spent the past two nights in Indiana [the Boyce Spring Retreat] praying for this. Why where you surprised."

"I guess I forgot."

"My friend, I hope that in your life, you don't ask God for things, forget them, and be surprised when He gives them to you."

My horrible recounting doesn't even do justice to the truth and gravity of his words. Wow, is that ever true. At the Spring Retreat, we genuinely asked for revival. May it come Lord, may it come. And ... may we expect it.

"Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn [us] we have confidence before God, and can receive whatever we ask from Him because we keep His commands and do what is pleasing in His sight. ... Now this is the confidence we have before Him: whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for." 1 John 3:21-22; 5:14-15