Questions about Prayer
I’ve had a few questions about prayer for several years now, so I thought now might be a good time to bring them up. Maybe someone else has thought about these questions and has some insight or thoughts into them.
1. I’ve noticed that in life, it is in the hard times and challenging experiences that we tend to grow the most. It seems like God uses those experiences to grow us and teach us. Would you agree?
2. So if #1 is true (as a general rule), then why do we tend to always pray for the easy road for ourselves and other people? Recently, I found myself praying for someone who had just become an independent contractor. In my prayer, I asked God to help it all go well, etc. Also, the same night, we were praying for some people who were traveling due to a death in the family. We prayed that the family interactions would go smoothly, that they would have easy conversation, etc. However, since some in the family aren’t Christians, maybe some ‘not-smooth’ conversation would be the catalyst for something better than ‘a good time was had by all’. Make sense?
I guess I’m just wondering why we don’t pray for strength through hard times and growth in the midst of it, instead of for the easy road. It seems like when you talk to some missionaries, etc, they say, ‘Don’t pray for my safety, just pray that I would be bold, etc’. However, when we pray for people who aren’t on the ‘mission field’ full-time (again, generalization - I know we are all missionaries), then we lapse back into praying for a peachy life. It just doesn’t add up for me.
I know God is sovereign and will accomplish His plan even in spite of us sometimes, but I just wonder if our prayers and true feelings about situations shouldn’t change or be different from our worldly desires as we mature in Christ. What do you think?
