Choice Prayer vs. Creative Prayer

   In Bible Study last night one of the things we talked about was creative prayer verses choice prayer. I thought it was really cool so that's what I'm going to write about today! :)
   The choice prayer is typically prayed in two different ways(there may be more I don't know of). The first one is options and would sound something like, "God, I really want to get into UT so please help me to do really good on my SAT, be in the top 8% at my school, or have a really great resume. I'll leave it up to you. Amen." That seems fine but in reality it limits God. Instead of allowing Him to work in your life freely, you are limiting Him to helping you get into UT while He might have bigger plans for you at Harvard! 
   The second is the solution prayer and I know I've prayed this one a lot! I would say something like, "God, my friend doesn't know you. Please help me to be your light in her life and lead her to you. Amen." Again, that sounds great but is restricting. I have no clue if my friend is ready to accept God or if God wants to use me to lead her to Him. It could be that He has planned for someone else to do that job so that her faith will be much more than it could be with my plan! 
   And then we have the third option, the creative prayer. In this prayer we tell God the problem and then stop. This leaves room for God to be creative and do things we could never have imagined ourselves. We see examples of this all throughout the Bible such as the feeding of the five thousand. (For a refresher read Mark 6:30-44.) When it is clear that the people have to eat, the disciples essentially pray the options prayer. They explain to Jesus that He can send the people home to eat or go buy food for everyone. Neither option is a very good one since people might faint from hunger on the way home and if they bought food they'd spend all their money and everyone would get a small bite. However, Jesus has a plan far beyond anything imaginable and it is with that plan that He feeds the people. God can do that with our prayer too. If I pray, "God, my friend doesn't know you. Amen," The possibilities for His power are so much greater than if I were to restrict him to doing what I think would be a good solution! Mary (His mother) does this at the water to wine miracle (John 2:1-12). In verse 3 Mary tells Jesus, "They have no wine." She doesn't ask Him to get some for them, she just states the problem and leaves the solution up to Him because she knows she can't imagine what He has in store, and she was right! :) So, in conclusion, pray your problems and leave room for God to be creative!