Vending Machine Prayers

Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal. // John 6:27

The frequency with which I find myself grasping and clinging to “the food that perishes” rather than “the food that endures” still shocks me. 

I have been Catholic all my life and have lived my faith fairly seriously most of my adult life. I take going to Mass every Sunday seriously. I try my best to make daily prayer a priority. I value praying with and thinking about Scripture. 

And yet, despite these things, it is all too easy to want and desire the food that perishes. 

I want my prayers to be answered, and not merely answered, but quickly and in just the way I desire. Accompanying my prayers is my attitude that my will must be completely correct—God cannot possibly disagree with me or have plans that do not coincide with my own!

When my prayers are not answered in the way and timing I want them to be, I am thrown. There cannot be better reasons as to why the answers are not forthcoming. Why can’t I receive what I want when I want it? 

I want the easy, fast, vending machine of God answering my prayers. I want the quick fix of food that perishes, that satisfies my wants of today. In my pride I choose the food that perishes immediately. I refuse to humbly trust in God the Father to answer my prayers in His perfect timing and ways—I refuse the food that endures forever. 

It is so easy to go about our lives thinking that our faith and trust in God is deep and profound. But truly pursuing that which endures requires giving up our own desires in many ways which we do not expect. Our pride can be hidden in so many places within our hearts, urging us to forsake that which endures for the all-too-familiar temporary food that lasts just a moment. Where in your life are you holding on to your own desires so strongly that you are willing to give up the food that endures for the quick fix of being satisfied today?