Hoping or Asking

I think I may have surprised a few of my fellow church council members when I was tasked with offering the ending prayer at our recent meeting. In fact, I'm pretty sure of it because I also surprised myself a bit.

In praying for a fellow council member's friend, who was just diagnosed with cancer, I invoked a plea to God that "we hope that you will send your healing..." That may have sounded different than asking, but even so, hope is still asking; it's just an admission that it might not be granted. Nevertheless it was an honest use of the word, and I think God does appreciate our honesty. Revelation 3:16 states: "So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth." (NIV) There may be a few liberties taken with my interpretation, but how's that for telling us that we should make a decision and be truthful about it? 

We've all asked for something in prayer and the answer was "no." In fact one of the most difficult things to grasp, I think, is John 14:13: "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." (NIV) We could ask to win the lottery, find a better job, or even a cure for cancer, but it obviously depends on what the request is rather than how we make it.

I've never prayed harder or more fervently than asking God for a miracle to heal my husband who was terminally ill. Unfortunately, the answer to that was "no," and it is still a difficult decision to accept. On the other hand, I have beseeched God for other things and received affirmative answers.

In the end, I have resigned myself to really asking for God's will rather than mine, but I still hope His will is what I ask. As I've mentioned in a previous blog, I know there are some things that we cannot change, even with prayer. God has a plan, and nothing will interfere with it. That may sound a bit pragmatic, but I still believe that it is right and expected that we should pray, ask and hope.

I also believe God wants us to rely on Him and to realize that His wisdom is far greater than ours. He will help us to make lemonade out of the lemons that befall us if we let him. For me, it was taking the biggest tragedy of my life in losing my husband and leading me to a deeper faith, and giving me a catharsis as a writer - evidence of both which you are now reading.