Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
Blog Number 22
July 1, 2019
God Didn’t Do It My Way
There are countless lessons on prayer in our Bible. One of my favorites was King Hezekiah being told that he was going to die. Quickly he prays for healing and is granted fifteen more years of a healthy life.
Jesus in Luke’s gospel tells the story of the persistent prayers told by a widow seeking justice and how God will hear us if we pray continually. In John’s gospel he tells us that we can ask anything in his name and it will be given us.
Armed with these lessons on prayer, I have been praying for a young mother with cancer. Our whole congregation has been praying 24/7 for her. In May I used this blog to request further prayers for her. I received many promises that constant and persistent prayers would be said for her. I was pleased with this prayer response and was faithfully waiting for the healing miracle that we were confident in seeing.
God did not answer these prayers my way. Maria’s health continued to decline. More that a week ago she was moved into hospice care. She died several days later. Our prayers to cure her were not answered in any way that I, or her family desired. Instead, her husband is now widowed and her young son is missing his mother. Her family, her friends, our congregation and I, are all dealing with a mixture of sorrow, grief, and a bit of anger. Why didn’t God answer our prayers? Were the lessons on prayers lies or exaggerations?
God is God. There are times that he answers prayers in his own way, and not in ways that are clear to us. Now I am relying on another scripture. I have been binge reading Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord.”
Dispite my anger and sorrow, I still love Jesus and trust that something good will come from this loss. I may or may not ever see the good that comes from this, yet I am forced to trust it and hope that he will give me the gift of seeing what good will come from this. Even in despair, I must trust the Lord.
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To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please order a copy of his book:
The Circle of Seven
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