Making Sacrifices for Blank-Check Blessings

In our D&D game tonight, we encountered a dragon. Normally, a dragon would be a pretty tough fight, but this dragon approached us in the form of a human and subsequently became an ally of ours. Now, it's uncertain how genuine this alliance is our how long it'll last, but for now, we have a draconic ally, and my character, Krusk, believes he has Besmara to thank for that.

Shortly before the dragon encounter, Krusk prayed to Besmara and made her an offering of 50 Gold Pieces and his wedding ring. (Krusk no longer considers himself married to the woman who cheated on him and attempted to kill one of his friends and steal a whole hoard of treasure from him.) When Krusk made that offering, he wasn't asking for anything specific. The was no favor he was especially trying to seek. He was merely devoting himself to the worship of Besmara and hoping that she'd choose him to be (one of) her champion(s).

He had no idea a dragon might get involved. He would never have dreamed of asking for anything that great. The dragon was a complete surprise, but it was a welcome one.

When we Fast and contribute Fast Offerings, we sometimes have specific blessings in mind. There are often particular trials or challenges we want to overcome or particular blessings we want to get. We are encouraged to pray specifically, since that makes it at least a little bit more likely for us to get what we want.

Yet, God knows our wants and needs better than we can imagine, and there are certainly times when what we want isn't actually what's best for us. Perhaps we should occasionally ask God to bless us with whatever He wants to give us. Maybe we should sometimes make sacrifices to and for God "just because." God wants to bless us, and He knows which blessings would help us most. So, while we can certainly pray and fast and sacrifice for whatever blessings we think we need, perhaps we should also pray and fast and sacrifice for whatever blessings God knows we need. We may not know what blessings we're making sacrifices for, but I'm sure that God will make sure that whatever blessings He gives us will be well worth the sacrifices.