How to Be a Mixed-up Person

How to Be a Mixed-up Person
JUDGES 6:25- 40

This week I asked a group of students what impressions their Christian background had given them about prayer. One of the recurrent themes was that we need to be a bit careful how we talk to God. You don’t complain to God, question God, or ask God for things that God hasn’t already encouraged you to ask for. Now, I admit that when I ask God for things, God sometimes doesn’t grant them, and when I question God, the response is sometimes, “Shut up.” But at least that suggests the relationship is real, with give and take. It’s like the relationship of parents and children; I would not have wanted my children to hesitate about asking me things and also asking me for things because they were afraid of how I might react. Or it’s like the relationship of teacher and students; while some students ask for extra time to write their papers and get a positive answer, and some ask and get a negative answer, the ones who don’t even ask certainly don’t get it...