Fortune Cookies?

Ok... So I love illustrations and images. The first one that came to my mind when I read these verses were Chinese Fortune Cookies. Weird huh?.... but stay with me, eventually I think I think I'll get to the moral of the story. lol.

These verses reminded me of a Fortune cookie in a way because anytime you go to a Chinese Buffett or order Take Out they always end the meal with a fortune cookie. A lot of people just ignore these little golden semi- sweet nuggets, choosing not to break through the shell to FIND that little slip of paper that is placed there to enlighten you about some aspect of your life. They have no desire to SEEK such things because the little slips of paper have no meaning to them. Others enjoy reading their "fortunes" whether they really take it seriously or they read them just for fun, so they ASK for more cookies or even their friends cookies.

Either way, when a person breaks open a fortune cookie he or she expects "something' to be on the inside and 10 times out of 10, that person is expecting to find something good! They are seeking to find something good when the cookie is opened!

Now sometimes when a person opens the cookie they may find a message that is very cryptic and makes no sense for them. It seems to have nothing to do with their life. When a person gets those types of messages they usually toss it away because they don't like that "something" that they FOUND when they OPENED the cookie. Other times they find words of enlightenment and they hold onto that slip until they get washed away in the pocket of their jeans. lol.

These verses makes me think of the differences between fortune cookies and how we should approach God and prayer.

First, unlike a fortune cookie factory God is not a machine that manufactures pre-packaged, generalized , one size may or may not fit all responses to His people. Instead He is a loving Father and an almighty God, who answers and responds to individual prayers and requests.

God doesn't wrap a prepackage answered prayer in a cookie and send it to the first 100 callers! You don't have to worry about if you are going to be the person who gets the "good" fortune cookie or the "cryptic", hard to understand fortune cookie. Or if your prayer will even be answered at all.

God answers prayers. Unlike a "fortune" cookie, God may not give us immediate gratification. We don't knock a hard shell cookie on a table and BAM! an answer from the Lord comes out! We may not receive answers right then and right there. We may have to wait and wait and wait... knock and knock and knock. But God assures us in Verse 8 states that "Everyone that asketh; receiveth, and he that seeketh; findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened"

If you ask, which means to make a petition to God, it shall be given. If you seek, ye shall find, knock, it will be opened. So unlike how people approach fortune cookies, we can't sit at the table and wait for the waiter to bring us a fortune cookie and expect it to be just for us. Nope! The waiter just reaches in a basket and pulls out a cookie and places it on your table. No wonder you get stuff like "you will get a new pair of high heels" and you happen to be a man. lol.

We must approach prayer and God differently! We must petition, and make our request known unto God. We must also SEEK His truth and His Word and Will to make sure what we ASK, our petition lines up with His Will. We must also KNOCK, which means to approach Him and stay there in faith, believing that we are in the right place and that God will answer. It takes the action of faith to stand at a door and knock and keep on knocking until the door is opened.

Most importantly, unlike a fortune cookie, the answers that God provides us are REAL! They can be trusted. They stand the test of time and are worthy of all praise and glory. His answered prayers have real meaning in our lives and are not man made jokes, trivia, or double-speak written on a slip of paper.

Best of all you don't have to like Chinese food or step foot outside of where you are right now to receive all the good "fortunes" that God has prepared for those who faithfully ask, seek and knock!

Created 7 months ago