There have been seasons in my prayer life when I have consistently called out to the Lord for something that I have known should occur. More often than not, these prayers have been prayers for healing, either for someone within the congregation or within my own family. During those seasons, I have trusted that God will work for what is best. A difference may exist, however, between trusting that God will work for what is best and for what I want to occur. This difference is one with which I continue to struggle.
I often believe that what I want is the best possible outcome, be it my desire to see someone healed of cancer or to have the Falcons play four complete quarters of football. I tend to think that my desire is always the best outcome. The challenge for me is that, though I pray for my outcome to occur, things do not always turn out as I wish. Such endings seem to stand in opposition to the words Jesus spoke to his disciples when He said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find... for everyone who asks receives.”
The difference between my desires and God’s working for the good of all people and all things, though, is revealed in the simple fact that while we know what we believe to be good and proper, God’s perspective encompasses a universal understanding of what is good. My prayers for healing seem to be the ones that will point towards God’s miraculous intervention in a way that will bring glory and honor to our Creator, while His perspective might differ. For God, perhaps, the only healing that needs to occur is that final healing we will all receive when we are drawn anew to Him at death. This perspective shift challenges us. Even more, though, it points us toward a deeper understanding of the Lord’s infinite majesty over our own limited perspectives.