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God's Words For US
by Cecelia Lester
Praying for the Lord’s Will
“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways, my ways,’ declares the Lord.”
She came into our Sunday school class to update us about her husband’s condition after emergency major surgery.
This wife painted a truthful, yet grim, picture of her husband’s physical state. He has been through several extended hospitalizations in the past few years.
I asked her, “How do you want us to pray?”
She explained that they had traveled this road several times before—being told he might not make it. This time the doctor gave her no hope. She then said, “Whatever God wants.”
When we pray for someone, we have to seek God’s will for what is best for the other person. If we seek God’s will through prayer we have to be grounded in our faith enough to realize God’s will might be something other than what we want.
What we also need to understand is that God’s Will will be completed. In the Mitford series, Jan Karon had Father Tim Kavanaugh and his wife, Cynthia, always reminding each other that “thy will be done,” is a prayer that God always answers.
I remember praying for an uncle of mine. He was in ICU. He had a very serious illness, one I had never heard of before. I bargained with God to make him well. But God had other plans for him.
The night before my uncle passed, my grandmother sat in the lobby of the hospital and told us how she felt. “I feel like some big hand has reached into my stomach and is pulling all my insides out.”
I was angry with God. How could He do this to my uncle’s children, my grandmother, my aunt and my mother and his nieces and nephew? Several months later, it took a friend and coworker to explain to me that God always accomplishes His Will, even when it is not ours.
When we walk in God’s Will, our desires fall by the wayside and we journey in obedience. We don’t always understand why we have to do certain things, but we do them anyway.
In 1997, Hubby got the idea that we would do our Christmas shopping the day before Thanksgiving. This was NOT like him. (He boasts about waiting until December 24). I went along with this, although I wasn’t really ready.
On Thanksgiving Day, he decided to go check on his sister. On his way back home, he had a wreck that totaled our car. A young woman collided into our silver Chevy Lumina t-boning it on the driver’s side. The impact threw him across the car and into the floor board, tossing him over a console between the seats. We didn’t get our car back from the repair shop until early February.
By being obedient about doing the bulk of our Christmas shopping when we did, I felt relieved of the worry of how we would get around. I did have to ask a daughter of a friend take me to a greeting card company’s warehouse sale so I could find some small gifts for the Sunday school class I taught. My stepmother insisted that we use her car until they needed it close to Christmas but it was too big for me to handle and my husband didn’t care for the idea.
The lady in church yielded to God’s Will for her and her husband. God extended his grace and allowed him to recover from his surgery. That Thanksgiving, I had to do something which I didn’t understand the reason for. My friend was right, God accomplishes His Will, even when it is not ours because He is God.
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Cecelia Lester has been serious about her writing for over two decades..
She composes Christian essays and posts them to her blog quietspirit-followingmyking.blogspot.com/
She has served in a faith-based organization, Grace In Action by writing two newsletters and searching for possible grants.
In July 2017, she published her first book, 'Times of Trouble Bring Rays of Joy.'
She and her husband of 54 years live in central Indiana. They have one grown son.
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