| Making the Most of Life |
Chapter 4 |
Page 5 |
Our best, truest prayers are not for earthly things, but for spiritual blessings. When the objects are temporal, we do not know what we should pray for – what would be really a blessing to us. You are a loving parent, and your child is very ill. It seems that it must die. You fall upon your knees before God to pray, but you do not know what to ask. Your breaking heart would quickly plead, “Lord, spare my precious child” but you do not know that that is best. Perhaps to live would not be God’s sweetest gift to your child, or to you. So, not daring to choose, you can only say, “Lord God, I cannot speak more; but thou knowest thy child; thou understandest what is best.”
Or, some plan of yours, which you have long cherished, seems about to be thwarted. You go to God, and begin to pray; but you do not know what to ask. You can only say, “Lord, I cannot tell what is best; but thou knowest.” What a comfort it is that God does indeed know, and that we may safely leave our heart’s burden in his hand, without any request whatever!
“Lord, I had chose another lot,
But then I had not chosen well;
Thy choice, and truly thine, was good;
No different lot, search heaven or hell,
Had blessed me, fully understood,
None other which thou orderest not.”
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