I’ve been reading a book called ‘Born for Battle’ by R. Arthur Mathews.
Mathews was one of the last missionaries to leave China as it fell to communism in 1949.
In the book Mathews makes an important point about praying for deliverance from trouble.
He notes that early on most of the prayers he and his fellow missionaries lifted up were driven by fear and a desperate desire to escape the hands of the communists.
Their constant struggle was to pull God over to their side of things and deliver them.
Eventually they learned this self-preoccupation in their prayers only made them discouraged and depressed.
Observing this, they changed their focus in praying… from obsessing about their deliverance to doing God’s will, whatever it may be.
With this shift they found new strength.
Not in dreams of escape, but in complete surrender to whatever God wanted to do with them.
I hope you remember the point of this.
Sometimes we pray for God to deliver us from some trouble and nothing seems to happen.
Things may even get worse!
But God is up to something in these times…
It’s just different than what we think we want.
So we need to realign ourselves–in our prayers and actions–with how He appears to be moving.
Then we can face whatever comes with peace, strength and effectiveness.
Because we understand…
God doesn’t always bring deliverance because He’s doing something else.
Trust in Him at all times… Ps. 62:8.
