Why, exactly, do I ask?

I wonder how often a chipmunk asks his father to teach him how to fly, or how often a fish asks her mother to teach her how to run. Some things are best not learned. Some goals are best achieved by other means. The path I chose, or request, for reaching a specific objective may well not be the best path for reaching that objective. I ask for patience and God gives me opportunity to exercise patience. I ask for grace and God gives me opportunity to extend grace. Where I had hoped for a divine endowment, God lays out a regimen of exercise. Spiritual disciplines require hard work, they require diligence and commitment.

Romans 5:3b says, "we know that suffering produces perseverance" and James 1:3 reiterates this when it says, "you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance". You want to persevere, you're going to suffer. How often do I ask God for patience, for grace, for mercy and the list goes on, only to be frustrated when my circumstances require me to exercise those disciplines. I guess that's why they're called disciplines and not gifts. If I really want to evidence those things in my life, I need to be willing to work at them.

Really, when one stops to think about it, who benefits most from things like patience, grace, mercy ... disciplines of that nature? Is the the one who exercises it, or the object of it? I guess there is no point in me having the patience of Job if there are no circumstances in my life which require patience, no call for me to have grace until there are those in my life who need grace extended to them. It really begs the question, doesn't it, why do we ask for these disciplines? To be more like Christ, I know. As I am tested by the situations in my life, may I find His character proven in me. May those I encounter experience Jesus as I interact with them.