What a blessing it is to have Someone to whom we can go:
Someone who change circumstances;
Someone who can heal;
Someone who can make something out of nothing;
Someone who can set the prisoner free;
Someone who can comfort beyond description.
Why then is it that when things appear to go wrong and then even more wrong, we tend to go from distressed to frantic?
Was He absent when John and Betty Stam were beheaded?
Did He fail to realize Watchman Nee was imprisoned for many years and died there because he was set up and convicted for adultery by the government?
What about the Jim Elliot and the other four who were martyred in Ecuador?
Consider what Paul went through:
23. . . . I am talking like one beside himself, [but] I am more, with far more extensive and abundant labors, with far more imprisonments, [beaten] with countless stripes, and frequently [at the point of] death.
24. Five times I received from [the hands of] the Jews forty [lashes all] but one; [Deut. 25:3.]
25. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been aboard a ship wrecked at sea; a [whole] night and a day I have spent [adrift] on the deep;
26. Many times on journeys, [exposed to] perils from rivers, perils from bandits, perils from [my own] nation, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the desert places, perils in the sea, perils from those posing as believers [but destitute of Christian knowledge and piety];
27. In toil and hardship, watching often [through sleepless nights], in hunger and thirst, frequently driven to fasting by want, in cold and exposure and lack of clothing.
28 And besides those things that are without, there is the daily [inescapable pressure] of my care and anxiety for all the churches!
29 Who is weak, and I do not feel [his] weakness? Who is made to stumble and fall and have his faith hurt, and I am not on fire [with sorrow or indignation]?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that [show] my infirmity [of the things by which I am made weak and contemptible in the eyes of my opponents].
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ knows, He Who is blessed and to be praised forevermore, that I do not lie.
(II Corinthians 11: 23-31, Amplified Bible)
(II Corinthians 11: 23-31, Amplified Bible)
We must take it all to Him. Of course we ask for relief and rescue unless we have a witness of the Spirit to the contrary.
Of course we ask others to pray. We weep. We suffer.
In the end, it is a matter of agreeing with God no matter what.
I know what it is like to be in a situation where a loved one might be killed or worse. I've had the compulsion to beg Him every several seconds. To think of nothing else.
He understands that. But for the Soldier of The Cross, there comes a whisper of the Holy Spirit who reminds that Soldier that he or she must agree with God no matter what. Even when tragedy strikes, there is no release or deep healing without agreeing with God.
When He does not answer in a way that lines up with our desires, we must remember that this is not the end. The end is in our real Home.
That is when we will be allowed to see how He not only answered prayer, but far, far more magnificently that we could have imagined.
It will be worth it all when we see Jesus!