Safety. . .

I asked God for something big yesterday -- to reveal Himself on a large-scale level. I felt the need for reassurance of His presence and purpose in the difficulties of life.

His answer was less than fascinating. I've already explored in my mind how His "small" answer could eventually be large-scale. I've wondered if perhaps He will turn the small answer into a solution to the big request I made. Either way, He answered.

A part of me feels something instinctively wrong with testing God by asking for something big and then evaluating His performance. For this reason, I am not discouraged by His answer. I never meant to test God. I firmly believe that He is the One who decides how and when to answer my prayers. But, I wonder if my views should be different. Should my prayers be for more specific, measurable results -- requests that clearly require either a positive or negative answer, leaving no room for middle ground? I pray in a very safe way -- a way that allows for God's will and for His creativity in answering. This way is the most comfortable, and it seems to match my understanding of God. But, what if He is not asking me to be safe? And how does all of this affect my view of God? That seems to be the true question of safety -- how it could change my view (or the view of those around me) about God. A safe prayer allows enough room that my view of God really cannot be negatively affected. An unsafe prayer, as it seems, must have the potential to negatively or positively affect my view of God. Why would I want to take this risk?

I've thought of King David and the many men who fought battles with him against the enemies of Israel. Oftentimes extremely out-numbered, they would pray for victory. This is certainly an unsafe prayer request. The answer required the supernatural, or these men would have surely died.

I welcome any other scripture references and/or comments to discuss these questions.