“We do not know what we ought to pray for

Romans 8:26

Often it is the answers to our prayers that cause

many of the difficulties in our life.

We pray for patience & our Father sends demanding people our way who test us to the limit, because suffering produces perseverance

Rom 5:3

We pray for a compliant spirit & God sends suffering again, for we learn to be obedient in the same way Christ

“learned the cost of obedience from what he suffered”

Heb 5:8

We pray to be unselfish & God gives us opportunities to sacrifice by placing other people’s needs first & by laying down our lives for others.

We pray for strength & humility & “a messenger of Satan” 2 Cor 12:7) comes to torment us until we lie on the ground pleading for it to be withdrawn.

We pray to the Lord, saying, “Increase our faith!” Luke 17:5

Then our money seems to take wings & fly away; our children become critically ill; an employee becomes careless, slow & wasteful; or some other new trial comes upon us, requiring more faith than we have ever before experienced.

We pray for a Christlike life that exhibits the humility of a lamb. Then we are asked to perform some lowly task, or we are unjustly accused and given no opportunity to explain, for

“he was led like a lamb to the slaughter & did not open his mouth”

Isa 53:7

We pray for gentleness & quickly face a storm of temptation to be harsh and irritable.

We pray for quietness & suddenly every nerve is stressed to its limit with tremendous tension so that we may learn that when He sends His peace, no one can disturb it.

We pray for love for others & God sends unique suffering by sending people our way who are difficult to love & who say things that get on our nerves & tear at our heart.

He does this because
love is patient,
love is kind. . . .
Love is not rude, . . .
Love is not easily angered. . . .
Love always protects,
Love always trusts,
Love always hopes,
Love always perseveres.
Love never fails

1 Cor 13:4–5, 7–8

Yes, we pray to be like Jesus & God’s answer is:
“I have tested you in the furnace of affliction”

Isa 48:10

“Will your courage endure or your hands be strong?”

Ezek 22:14

“Can you drink the cup?”

Matt 20:22

The way to peace & victory is to accept every circumstance & every trial as being straight from the hand of our loving Father;

to live “with him in the heavenly realms”

Eph 2:6 above the clouds, in the very presence of His throne & to look down from glory on our circumstances as being lovingly & divinely appointed.”

Adapted from Streams In The Desert