Dangerous Prayers: 2. Be Careful What You Ask For

We have a friend in Africa who often sends us thought provoking and reflective emails. He sent us one recently that really fits to this series. It talked about asking God for things and the answers God sent, here are a few of them:

I asked for patience and He sent me trials,
I asked for more love and He sent me the unlovable,
I asked for faith and He sent me challenges.

It may seem like Father is a bit harsh when we ask to grow and He sends us near impossible circumstances to grow within. The one thing we have to hold onto though, that gives us hope and faith in all our hardships and our doubts is:

"No temptation has overcome you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."
1 Corinthians 10: 13

See Father never allows more than we can bear but enough to help us grow. The second part of the email from our friend in Africa talked about the butterfly and went like this:

Once a man saw a chrysalis and the butterfly trying to push its way free after its amazing transformation. Now the man watched for a long time and saw how the butterfly made very slow progress, so he decided out of great kindness to help the butterfly. The man pulled the chrysalis away and waited for the butterfly's wings to open and for it to fly away. What the man didn't know though was that the process of the butterfly fighting its way free from the chrysalis was what gave strength to those same wings and allowed the blood to flow around them for the first time and therefore enabling it to fly. This butterfly never flew, its wings never opened but hung deformed on its back for the rest of its life.

The point is sometimes it's the trials that make us strong enough to fly and when we cry out to God for help as much as He wants to He knows that if He lightens the load then we could never reach our full potential. Today if you are going through hard times ask Father for strength to persevere and faith to overcome. I pray you will find your way from your own chrysalis and fly in all your glory!

Sara Jukes

2005-03-18