There was a husband and wife couple who were known to be quite lazy. Even their belief in God was very casual. They would always quarrel about who should do the house chores.
They would spend most of their days in this manner. One evening, the couple went to bed. The husband turned to his wife and said 'Would you blow the candle out please?' The wife replied 'No, it's your turn so you do it!'
The husband pleaded with his wife to blow the candle out, but she would not do it. Then the husband said 'OK then, I'm going to pray to God to blow the candle out!'
He began praying, 'God please blow this candle out. If you blow this candle out I will travel everywhere singing your praises. I will climb the highest mountain and meditate there, just please blow out the candle.'
After the man had finished praying, there was a moment of silence. Then a moth came flying into the room and started flying around the flame and eventually flew into the flame and extinguished it by giving its life.
When this happened the couple were shocked. The wife turned to her husband and said 'This is a very bad thing you have done for us! My legs are useless as are yours, how are we going climb the mountain in our condition?'
The husband said 'Don't worry about it! The thing that I was praying to knows that I am lazy - I'm sure he doesn't expect us to really climb the mountain, so I wont!'
But in praying to God and making his promises, the husband did not realise that he had taken on a massive debt, all for the sake of blowing out a candle.
We must be careful when asking for something from God if God keeps his promise to us should we not also do the same?