Ephesians 5:17
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
It is tempting to treat God, not as Father, but as a sort of Cosmic Vending Machine. Huck Finn, whose Pap was not much of a model of fatherhood, was stumped by this: “Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn’t so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn’t any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn’t make it work. By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn’t make it out no way.” The reason poor Huck couldn’t make it out no way was because Miss Watson was the real fool, teaching him that God was a sort of penny slot machine and not the Father that he so needed. Instead of placing petitionary prayer in the whole context of God’s relationship with us, she taught Huck to confuse grace with magic. When the magic didn’t happen, the practical Huck concluded “there ain’t nothing in it” and moved on. Today, when we pray, let us first “understand what the will of the Lord is” since only prayers made in accordance with that will are answered.