It’s a fact of spiritual life that answers to prayer can often be confusing, even to the point of us not being able to recognise them as answers. Have you noticed? We pray for increased patience and Yahweh sends demanding people into our lives who test us to the limit. Or we pray for greater obedience and find ourselves submerged in suffering, for we learn obedience as Yahshua did [Hebrews 5:8].
Have you ever prayed earnestly to be more like Yahshua, and then been plunged into all kinds of difficulties? Perhaps you were unjustly accused of something and given no opportunity to explain; or asked to do a humble, unnoticed task, when you felt your skills would be better used elsewhere; or you have been exposed to exhausting pressure, stress or tension. Is it possible that all these scenarios could be answers to pray? Oh, yes! Take care what you pray for!
Some years ago, inspired by a challenging sermon, I began to pray for ‘a baptism of love’. Until then, I thought I was a fairly loving person. Mostly, I liked people, relating quite easily to different types. I was in for a shock! Helpfully, Yahweh began to send people my way who were difficult to love! Some I found painfully irritating, others whose conversation seemed to get on my nerves and tear at my heartstrings. The Living Bible, a newly published translation at the time, opened for me at 1 Corinthians 13:4, “Love is…never haughty or selfish or rude,” I read. “Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong.” I read it again and again, understanding I had a long way to go! Yahweh was answering my prayer in His own inimitable way.
Annie Johnson Flint, an author and poet of the 19th century, captures this principle:
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 up held my own.
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You Are The BranchesClick to see the whole passage:
1 timothy 3:16 NIV - Beyond all question, the mystery from - Bible Gateway
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