Tim, George, and I went halibut fishing today. I have been having trouble with my main outboard motor, my big 135-horsepower Mercury. Something isn’t working right with the gas. I have been working on it, off and on, for this entire trip. So, the other day, I bought a small, 9.9 horsepower motor for backup. It is on the small side for my 26-foot dory boat, but it would get us in. Well, we launched, and the big motor wouldn’t run, so we used the little motor, and it got us out to our fishing spot in the ocean easily enough, even if a bit slow. We fished for four hours, caught three halibut, and decided to head in. In the process of trying to pull the anchor, we got the anchor rope wound up in the prop of our only functioning outboard motor. Yikes, it was a good thing we threw in some oars before we left this morning. I thought, “I wonder how long it will take us to row this boat in?” It took a while, but we finally got the rope free from the prop and putt-putted it into the launch site and onto our trailer. It is so much fun having emergencies; it keeps the day from getting boring.

While we were dealing with our dilemmas, I was praying in my head, pretty much non-stop, Lord, give me wisdom, strength, peace, and joy. I don’t pray that God will fix or change anything, only that He will give me what I need to fix, change, or conquer our problem and that I will rejoice and be positive through it all. A lot of people get panicky or grumpy during that kind of situation, and I have in the past; that is why I pray that the Lord will help me enjoy the moment and not offend anybody in the process.

In our quest for comfort and security, I believe we often pray prayers that God won’t answer. He is the one who often causes the circumstances we are in, so why would He change it? He caused it so that we will grow. But God will always answer the prayer for wisdom, strength, peace, and joy. His Word, the Bible, promises that in many places. I pray guaranteed prayers, not iffy ones.