Lately, I've been praying for a lot of causes that seem hopeless (perhaps that's part of the problem -- lack of faith on my part because I see no hope?). Speaking to the wondrous one about one such cause and I mentioned that we should be open to the possibility that the Lord had no plans to redeem this situation -- not because He couldn't redeem it since He can redeem anything (perfect example: me), but because He had no intention of doing so for reasons too great for me to comprehend."Where's the hope or grace in that?" she posed.
Whenever we don't understand a situation because of the tragedy or sorrow involved, the presence of grace and hope and redemption is always a question. That young person dying of a disease? That soldier killed in war? That marriage broken up? That immoral law passed? That job lost? That child giving birth to a child? All real situations where plenty of prayers leading up to those events seem not to have budged the Lord from His plan.
Been asking the Lord lately in prayer not always for a particular solution (read: my solution) to be achieved, but rather for discernment of His will in the situation to temper my prayers. Rather than "Lord, please heal X", a "Lord, is your will for this illness to stay? Then, Lord please administer comfort to Y, and acceptance to X". One might see this as somehow making excuses for God and jumping to the worst-case scenarios because I lack faith in His power to save. Possibly. I see this as a maturation in prayer -- that asking for what I want to happen seems somehow less faithful than seeking to know His mind.
1 comment:
I also have been grappling with this question, and yes, sometimes I think we make excuses for God. We don't want to paint Him into a corner, and so we hedge our prayers with all kinds of "fallback positions".
I agree that it is foolishness to think that God's solutions will always follow our ways -- we're praying, after all, to a God whose ways are high above our ways, and it would be a pretty poor God who could only address problems as well as we could. But I also think that God honors a persistent, motivated prayer. God commands us to pray, and He doesn't always reveal His plans to us ... so I think He doesn't mind if we pray within the limits of our vision.
I say, pray for the good thing you desire, but leave room for God to answer another way. I like to preface my prayers with a statement about submitting to God's answer (even if it is "No"), and then I go ahead and pray for the miracle, or whatever.
That said, I'm still trying to figure this out.
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