Have you ever prayed for strength and receive “a messenger of Satan (2 Cor. 12:7) comes to torment us until we lie on the ground pleading for it to be withdrawn.”?  How about praying for patience and receiving “demanding people [sent] our way who test us to the limit because…suffering produces perseverance (Rom. 5:3)”?  Or pray to be unselfish and we are “given opportunities to sacrifice by placing other people’s needs first.”?  Perhaps you’ve prayed for more faith and find new trials come “upon us, requiring more faith than we have ever before experienced.”  (all quotes from Streams in the Desert devotional)

It’s been a long time in my faith walk in which I believe you better be careful what you pray for because “often it is simply the answers to our prayers that cause many of the difficulties in the Christian life.”  And that, my friends, brings me to my troubled state of mind on prayer.

It does scare me a bit to think of what’s next, but I look back at what’s been and can see where God has moved in my life.  So instead of praying for specific areas of fine tuning (strength, more faith, etc.) I solely want God’s will to be done in/with my life and will leave the details to Him…if I need strength He’ll bring what needs to be brought to teach me.  My hope is I’ll learn along the way and He will receive the glory for all answered prayers, however and whenever they are answered.

I’m leaving it up to God to test, strengthen, refine and teach me what it is He needs me to learn for the next step in the process…what ever that may be.

Oh and by the way…happy Friday the 13th!