Then What

By Tim Keller, Lead Pastor

This one will require your full attention.

Please stop what you are doing and think intently with me for just a few minutes.

What is the single desire you want right now more than anything else?

Take a few minutes, even close your eyes if you need to, and think about what you would ask for if that infamous genie in a bottle would grant you a single wish.

Got it?

Now just one question.

Then what?

What would change if that single prayer were uttered and answered on the spot? How would your life or the lives of others be impacted by your deepest desire being fulfilled? What would look different in your universe if you had your wish fulfilled?

Would the entire community be changed or would your desire hit closer to home? Would your desire have lasting impact for eternity or would it be a temporary fix to an ongoing dilemma?

I’ve been challenged lately that the things I really wish for and want badly don’t always have eternal impact. I tend to take smaller things to God that are important to me and perhaps even to a few people around me, but neglect to seek bigger, more eternal prayers that would change the landscape of a nation or a world.

There are two reasons for this.

First, I tend to pray selfishly. My cold shoots to the top of my prayer list because it inconveniences me and makes my life miserable for a week. A broken bone is six weeks and earns a more passionate prayer. The community wide need for racial reconciliation has less immediate impact on me so it doesn’t merit wasting my single wish on it. Thus, my prayer list includes my sniffles and excludes the hatred and bitterness that literally surrounds my home.

Second, I tend to pray small. “Give us this day our daily bread” is small and safe and easy to pray. “Your kingdom come and Your will be done” is a lot bigger of a prayer request and might require more of me so I avoid asking for things like that. I just want the repair man to fix the furnace, I don’t want him snooping around my plumbing; he might find something else wrong and I’m not prepared to pay for that at present. So, I only seek to fix what I can control and manage. Unfortunately, God can pay for it all and offers to do so. He never asks or expects me to pay for the work He wants to do in my life.

Are you ready to reevaluate your single prayer request?

Yep. Me, too.