" 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 chosen 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."
We can do little more than this in any request for temporal things.
Says Archdeacon Farrar: "There are two things to remember about prayers
for earthly things: One, that to ask mainly for earthly blessings is a
dreadful dwarfing and vulgarization of the grandeur of prayer, as
though you asked for a handful of grass, when you might ask for a
handful of emeralds; the other that you must always ask for earthly
desires with absolute submission of your own will to God's." So
silence is oft-times the best and truest praying--bowing before God in
life's great crises; but saying nothing, leaving the burden in God's
hand without any choosing. We are always safe when we let God guide us
in all our ways.
"Ill that he blesses is our good,
And unblest good is ill;
And all is right that seems most wrong,
If it be his sweet will."
Many of the richest possibilities of prayer lie beyond valleys of pain
and sorrow. The best things of life cannot be gotten save at sore
cost. When we pray for more holiness, we do not know what we are
asking for; at least we do not know the price we must pay to get that
which we ask.
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