Women who faithfully pray still get sick. Life still disappoints. Children cause grief, husbands lose jobs or much worse, lose interest in marriage.
Yet these women still pray.
By praying, they know, “In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old” (Isaiah 63:9).
God’s Word, like the sun, gives clear-shining bright light for my path (from Psalm 119:105).
Reading the Bible shows us what to pray.
Long ago we caught a monarch caterpillar and watched it become a chrysalis and then a butterfly. Our youngest daughter had been too small to understand, so for years we looked and prayed that we would find one. We never did.
Then, late one summer, we noticed a monarch chrysalis on our front porch. The day we left for vacation my youngest daughter watched it emerge.
Now, every time I see a monarch butterfly I remember God’s kindness.
Learn to move men by God though prayer. ~ Hudson Taylor
To learn how God moves men, pray, then watch and wait.
David’s prayer began: “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me (Psalm 13:1)?”
Though he still waited for God to answer, his prayer ended: “I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me (Psalm 13:5-6).
Pray with cheerful expectation.
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior (Habbakuk 3:17-18).
It is as if the writer were actually saying, “Even if I am forced to undergo the extreme condition of not knowing where to find my next meal, and although my house is empty and my fields yield no crops . . . ‘yet I will rejoice in the Lord.'”*
*L.B. Cowman, Streams in the Desert, p.307.
The heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1).
We can too. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all peoples (1 Chronicles 16:24).
“I had recently received bad news. Deep shadows of darkness seemed to cover my soul. I prayed but the darkness remained. Suddenly, one day, as I entered a friend’s home, I noticed these words: ‘Try giving thanks.’ I did, and in a moment every shadow was gone.”*
It is good to give thanks to the Lord (Psalm 92:1).
*adapted from L.B. Cowman who cited Henry B. Frost in Streams in the Desert, p. 299.
