Trisha Caldwell
Do you ever think back to how you worded a prayer, or the reason you said that prayer? What about convictions as you are praying, that maybe you are to approach it differently?
God has been working on my mind and heart to process more fully the right approach to prayer. When I see someone walking down the street, on the side of the road fixing their tire, struggling with tough circumstances, recovering from sickness or surgery ….. my first thoughts in prayer are that things would go well for them, that God would keep them safe, that recovery would be smooth, and so on.
While there’s nothing wrong with asking for this and wanting things to go smoothly, it should be in light of accepting God’s plan of how it will come to fruition. Going through the struggle can be what brings someone to Christ, or how God plants a new person in our lives. It may be how God changes our path to a different direction we should go. His purposes are beyond our understanding but always bring about the good He is working.
“Ask and you shall receive” – nowhere does it say we will receive it exactly how we picture it should go, but we will receive what we ask. So how about this: “Lord, please allow things to work out well for them. And please strengthen and guide them through the path you have for them. I pray You would be even more real to them and they would be willing to accept Your way. And while I hope things go smoothly for them, may Your will be done, Lord. Amen.”
“‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops,
What if Your healing comes through tears,
What is a thousand sleepless nights are
What it takes to know You’re near.
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst
This world can’t satisfy.
And what if trials of this life –
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights –
Are Your mercies in disguise.”
From the song Blessings by Laura Story
I didn’t post this on a Tuesday this week but God’s timing is perfect. Is it a blessing in disguise?