WE DON'T KNOW WHAT WE OUGHT TO PRAY FOR

I just read those words this past week as I was working on an upcoming message…“We don’t know what we ought to pray for.” (Romans 8:26 NIV)…and, I thought, “Oh, how true!” Sometimes it is the very answers to our prayers that cause many of the difficulties in our life. We pray for love of others, and God sends suffering people our way who are difficult to love, and say things that get on our nerves just to remind us that “love is patient, love is kind…it is not rude…it is not easily angered…it ALWAYS protects, always trusts… always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

We pray for patience, and it seems that the first people who cross our paths are difficult and demanding, and test us to the limits…because we know that “suffering produces perseverance.” (Romans 5:3). We pray to be unselfish, and God responds by giving us opportunities to sacrifice by placing other people’s need first. We pray for strength and humility, and “a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from getting proud.” (2 Corinthians 12:7) is promptly dispatched to make sure we are “not puffed up”.

We pray for a Christlike life that exhibit’s the humility of Jesus, and we are soon asked to perform some lowly task, or we are unjustly accused and given no opportunity to explain. We pray for gentleness and quickly face a storm of temptation to react with harshness and irritability. We pray for a quietness, and suddenly it seems that we have only one nerve left…and someone is STANDING RIGHT ON IT!…all so we can learn that when He sends His peace, no one can disturb it.

We pray as the Apostles did, to “increase our faith” (Luke 17:5), and it seems that promptly our money seems to take wings and fly away; someone close becomes critically ill; the car won’t start, and if it did you couldn’t go anywhere till you changed the tire; or, some other new trial comes upon us requiring more faith than we have ever before experienced.

We pray to be like Jesus, and God’s answer is “I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” (Isaiah 48:10) “Will your courage endure or your hands be strong?” (Ezekiel 22:14) Or, as Jesus said in Matthew 20:22... “Can you drink the cup?”

It appears that the way to peace and victory is to accept every circumstance and every trial as being straight from the hand of our loving Father, knowing He is looking down from glory on those circumstances as being lovingly and divinely appointed to grow us into what He created us to be…in His likeness.

I read a poem written by Annie Johnson Flint that I would like to share with you. I believe it is called “Better Than My Best”.

I prayed for strength, and then I lost awhile
All sense of nearness, human and divine;
The love I leaned on failed and pierced my heart,
The hands I clung to loosed themselves from mine;
But while I swayed, weak, trembling, and alone,
The everlasting arms upheld my own.

I prayed for light; the sun went down in clouds,
The moon was darkened by a misty doubt,
The stars of heaven were dimmed by earthly fears,
And all my little candle flames burned out;
That while I sat in shadow, wrapped in night,
The face of Christ made all the darkness bright.

I prayed for peace, and dreamed of restful ease,
A slumber free from pain, a hushed repose;
Above my head the skies were black with storm,
And fiercer grew the onslaught of my foes;
But while the battle raged, and wild winds blew,
I heard His voice and perfect peace I knew.

I thank You, Lord, You were too wise to heed
My feeble prayers, and answer as I sought,
Since these rich gifts Your bounty has bestowed
Have brought me more than all I asked or thought;
Giver of good, so answer each request
With Your own giving, better than my best.