There was a time when online food orders at restaurants were novel.  Now they are an expectation.  At the risk of sharing the obvious, allow me to briefly review the process. 

When we order food online, we start with the menu, where we choose our favorite fare, pay with a credit or debit card, and drive to the restaurant to pick up our purchase (unless we decide to have our food delivered by a third-party service).  When we arrive at the restaurant, we receive our order in a bag, with condiments and plastic silverware.  On occasion, an employee might open each of our meal packs to confirm everything is correct. 

“What a country!” Right?

At the additional risk of using a well-worn metaphor, please continue to show me grace as I delve into our prayer walk with God.  If you are unfamiliar with the comparison, suffice it to say some have suggested prayer is our “online connection” with our Creator.  I believe the parallels involve such things as God’s availability and reliability.  We can pray to him at any time, day or night, and He will provide what we need. 

These things are true, but I wish to spend a few moments suggesting some ways our relationship with God is not like ordering up our favorite dish online.  This is important as we can easily slip into the habit of expecting God to meet our cultural norms.  Consider the following contrasts:

Our relationship with God is not “transactional”.  While it is true, God answers our prayers, rewards us when we are faithful and guides us when our hearts are open, we are not equals acting out a business deal.  God is in control and the only reason our free-will choices are a factor in what He does is because He has determined this is how our relationship will function.  This means, while we may have expectations of God, sometimes based on our interpretation of biblical promises, we do not report Him to the Better Business Bureau when life doesn’t turn out the way we had hoped.  God cannot be rated because He is perfect, and although His ways are not always our ways, He is still in charge. 

Secondly, what sounds good to us may not be what God wants for us.  I think most of us would be angry if we ordered a meal online, only to discover the manager of the restaurant gave us another meal because he felt it would be better for us.  We would demand that our original order be filled or ask for our money back! However, God’s answers to our prayers are frequently out of sync with what we want in favor of giving us what we need.  Or, in some cases, not giving us what we don’t need.  I realize this is one of the most complex and difficult aspects of our relationship with God to understand, and I don’t mean to minimize its impact on our lives.  I simply want to clarify that God is not a restaurant employee who merely fills our order.

Finally, God’s provisions are given on His time, not ours.  When we arrive at a restaurant to pick up our order, we expect it to be ready in a short timeframe, and in some cases relative to a specific time given online.  In contrast, God doesn’t operate on our clock.  Sometimes His hand moves immediately in our lives.  Other times, we must wait days, weeks, months and perhaps years to see His answer.  And His answer might require a sincere effort on our part to bring our desires to fruition.  For example, if we pray for our infant child to grow into a godly adult, we must not only wait until he or she becomes an adult to see how God has answered our prayer, but we must do the hard work of parenting along the way.  Realize, this does not mean we are fully responsible for the outcome.  Or that we hold God accountable when things don’t turn out well.  Our child has a mind and will of his or her own and might choose to reject God’s guidance and our teaching.  Yet, the principle remains.  God doesn’t give us delivery times.  He works on His time and teaches us patience and faithfulness as we wait.

Perhaps you can think of other ways in which our prayer life is not exactly the same as an online order.  This doesn’t nullify the many similarities.  Yet, it is vital we not develop an “online mentality” that distorts our theology and creates expectations of God based on our will, not His.  Human culture is like a sustained wind, consistently shaping our view of reality and distorting biblical truth.  If we aren’t careful, we can define God in our image, based solely on our desires, and forget we aren’t the ones directing time and space.

Please, don’t let this discourage you from ordering online from your favorite restaurant, or from praying to God with expectations.  Just be sure to keep the two processing separate in your mind.  Kind of like butter or dressing on the side, or…

There I go again, letting my culture drip into my theology. 

And, of course, if you are reading this you are likely online at this very moment!  I hope you are happy with your order.