From Dijon to Ikea.

While visiting with Paul and Louise Klawitter in Dijon, France, I discovered that Paul had a really comfy chair in his office. I did some reading in it. I did some thinking in it. I did some napping in it. When I asked him where he got the chair, he informed me that they had purchased it in the Ikea store in Dijon. At that moment, I made the decision to find the closest Ikea store to Lancaster and get me one of those chairs!

Yesterday, Sharon and I drove to Ikea in the Philly area. After walking for what seemed miles, we finally emerged with the coveted chair. Once home, I assembled it (rather quickly for me!). Now I am enjoying it. It is every bit as comfortable as I recall Paul’s chair being! (For those of you who might be interested it is a Poang chair).

To obtain this chair, I had to expend a lot of effort. I had to locate the nearest Ikea store (which I was able to do online). Then, I had to find time in my schedule to make the 1 ½ drive to Ikea, make the purchase (and do some additional shopping while there!), and then drive back home. As I thought about that, I thought of prayer. Prayer is a spiritual discipline in which we spend time conversing with God. Prayer involves thanking, praising, asking, and confessing. It is at the same time both a huge privilege and a great responsibility. Consider the asking part of prayer. Jesus makes it clear that when we ask our prayers will be answered. In Matthew 7:7-8 He says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Yet all of us have experienced times when we have asked and we have not received. What then? Is God falling short on his promise to us? Listen to the following words of J.I. Packer from his book, Praying: Finding Our Way through Duty to Delight, p. 215:

“According to Jesus, there is no such thing as unanswered prayer when a faithful child of God brings requests to his or her heavenly Father. The prayer will be taken notice of. It may not be answered in the form in which we offer it. It may be answered by God making us aware that there are things in our life that have got to be changed before he can give us what we have asked for. It may be that he will answer our prayer in a way which makes us realize that we were not asking for precisely the right thing in the first place. So God answers the prayer we OUGHT to have made rather than the prayer we DID make. But that is not unanswered prayer.”

That’s good stuff. Feed on those thoughts. And keep on praying! Because as Jesus adds in Matthew 7:9-11: “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

Thanks for listening,

pj