John 7:21-31

John 7:21-31
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

  Imagine waiting for something for 35 years.  At a certain point, you become so accustomed to waiting, so glued to the idea that it will never come, that you become skeptical of anything that promises to be the thing you are waiting for.  The idea of waiting becomes more central, and at a certain point you've stopped waiting and are simply living a life centered around a wholly different idea.
  The Pharisees achieved this.  Waiting for the Messiah had become something different -- they weren't ready for the Messiah -- in fact, in some ways they preferred the status quo.  It was comfortable to them.
  So when we ask God to change us, to make our hearts new and refresh us by the Spirit, we need to do so with the awareness that God just might act on us.  God might indeed come, blowing the doors off our hearts and scattering the dust everywhere.  God might challenge our assumptions and call us to new ways of being, even if we're not truly prepared for it.
  When you pray and ask God to open your eyes to the working of his Spirit, to change your heart to follow him more faithfully, are you ready for God to truly do so?  Are you open to the fact that God might call us to do things we say we'd like to do but secretly are afraid of?  Are you ready to give it all to God?
  It's hard to think of our prayers being answered so dramatically, which is why it's important to hang on the Word of God daily, to be reminded of how great God is and how he will always challenge us to grow and comfort us when we fail.