Every morning, the smell of scrambled eggs wakes up my little 8 pound dog, Angel, who runs jumps up and down next to me as she says “hello and I’m hungry!”  I smile and tell her that her egg is almost done and she seems to nod in understanding.

I put the chopped egg into her dog dish and let it cool down for a minute as she gets more and more anxious.  As I put her dish on the ground, she walks over to the dish, turns and looks at me – and then it happens. . . She growls.

She growls and she means business.  She says, “Mine.”  This is mine.

Does this ever happen with you?

Have you ever asked God to bless you with something and later on growled at God and said, “Hey God – this is mine.”

• God this is my money for me to spend as I wish.
• God this is my body and I can do with it what I want.
• God this is my career and I worked hard for it.
• My house. My family.  My time.

The Bible has a lot to say about our selfishness, but a good summary might be found in James where it says, “Even when you ask God for things your aim is wrong, because you want what will give you pleasure. ^{James 4:1-10}

Perhaps the first step in changing this problem is simply recognizing it.   Ask yourself, “Are your prayers selfish?” and “How often do you growl at God?”

Maybe we can change the selfish direction of our prayers.  Instead of saying, “God give me this or that. . . ” we can say, “Thank you God.  Thank you for loving me every day.  Thank you for blessing me so I can be a blessing to others.”