“Do not cause anyone to stumble…” (1 Corinthians 10:32, NIV 1984).

This morning I took my time praying while I was pumping my legs on the Bowflex for 30 minutes. I love these times of exercise-prayer because I can pray as long as I want without distraction. I prayed especially for my wonderful wife, who has loved and supported me for decades. She has poured out her life in love for me, and I asked God to make today a day of great blessing for her. When I finished my exercise and prayer, I met her in the kitchen where she needed my help with a project. The project frustrated me, and I was short with her. A bit later she told me how much I had hurt her.

When you cry out to God in prayer, do you invest your life in that prayer and put legs on your plea, or do your actions interfere with God’s answer to that prayer?

Are you ever earnest with your requests to God and then run out and do something that blocks the work the Lord would use to answer those prayers?

For example:

• Have you ever asked God to bless the missionaries and then spend the money that would have answered that prayer on something very selfish?
• Have you ever prayed for your support staff, that they might know our Lord, and then shouted when they did not complete a task in the way you had wanted?
• Have you ever asked God that your kids might develop the character of Christ, but then, as they are watching, act rude with a waitress or ignore a beggar who has caught you at a stop light?
• Have you ever hurt the one you most love after praying that God would bless her day?

We have been so blessed by God with the privilege of carrying to Him our hearts’ desires.

And we are just as privileged to cooperate with Him in making those prayers succeed or not.

Do we invest in our prayers or block our prayers? God gives us that choice.

Dear God,

Change me so that my actions might fall in line with my prayers.

Amen