yippee2393 (post: 1190184) wrote:I partly agree with you there...God can use one person's trials or death to save other people, but I don't think he would kill someone to save someone else. Then again, none of us know God's will...and I don't have Bible verses handy to prove this, so I won't say you're wrong and I'm right.
And I also agree that if you want an xbox more than God, that you should pray for God to help you realize that you don't need it...but you can pray that God would come up with the means to get an xbox, as long as you remember to pray, as Jesus did, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
To summarize, I think you can pray for whatever you want, as long as you're not putting it above God's will for us. And as long as you don't blame God if you don't get what you want.
Hmm.. well, I was thinking about it.. and here's what I thought;
I was going to say I disagree with you, but then the example of David praying for his son's life came to mind. However, I went back and read the passage;
"Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD."
Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die."
After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and he became ill. David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them. On the seventh day the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, "While the child was still living, we spoke to David but he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate." David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. "Is the child dead?" he asked.
"Yes," they replied, "he is dead." Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate. His servants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!" He answered, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, 'Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.' But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me." Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The LORD loved him; and because the LORD loved him"
~ 2 Samuel 12:13-25
Here, we see somebody praying for something they really want. This is a righteous petition towards God. However, if you'll notice, I would say it is part of our good nature, and part of what makes us in God's Image, that we should love our child. Therefore, while the prayer is obviously not what God wants, David prayed as hard as Jesus did in Gethsemane. However, to argue that somebody can do the same thing {fast, and pray like this} for something inherently selfish (which I'll admit both Jesus' prayer and David's were}, and which has no bearing on anything important or sacred {life}, is simply wrong.
I can't recognize that as anything but a depraved man's prayer. Like a drug addict praying for the next high. Where is your focus? If it's on the happy-happy joy-joy feelings of the world {whether the high comes through an Xbox, a car, or a needle}, then I think you misunderstand where God wants your focus to be.
