Tweak Your Prayer
Dan Kunz
I try to start each day with three things – a devotional reading or video, time in God’s Word, and prayer. I can’t say I never miss a day, but most days begin that way. Since this is New Year’s Day, my prayers for family and friends is, perhaps, a little “bigger” than many days. It’s natural at the outset of a new year, to ask God for his protection and grace for the coming year, not just for the coming day. As I asked for those things this morning, it occurred to me I may be requesting God to work at cross purposes in people’s lives. One the one hand, I asked our Heavenly Father to watch over and protect my family from all harm and danger, make their lives happy and pain-free, and to bless them with good things. On the other hand, I also asked him to strengthen their faith, draw them closer to each other, and tighten the bond with him. If you think about it, those two “asks” don’t necessarily always fit together.
Today marks the second anniversary of the death of our beloved son-in-law, Ryan. If you read this blog regularly, you may remember I lost six family members in 2023. The year was a tough one and it seemed at times our family experienced few “good things”. Obviously, we did experience them, but it’s a little harder to enjoy and rejoice when our hearts are breaking over so many losses. Two years later, we can look back and see, however, that the Lord who loved us, loves us, and will continue to love us, in his Son, Jesus Christ, has done just what we asked in the second half of the prayer for our family and friends. Because of our (what we thought were unbearable) losses, God strengthened our faith, drew us closer to each other, and closer to him.
1 Peter 1:6-7 6 Because of this you rejoice very much, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various kinds of trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—which is more valuable than gold, which passes away even though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Pain, suffering, loss, death, and all the other parts of life we endure are not the only way God accomplishes those three important goals for our lives, but they are a significant way in many cases. Perhaps prayers for our loved ones should be tweaked just a bit. By all means, ask God, if it is his will, to spare them from all the hurts and pain which could come tomorrow, or next month, or in the coming year, but also ask for his presence and his grace, when those heartaches do come, as they may, remembering that God’s undeserved love is shown both in his sending Jesus to rescue us from sin, death, and the power of the Devil and in his intervention in our daily lives. Ask him for supportive and faith-filled family and friends to comfort and console. Ask the Holy Spirit to use all of life’s events to strengthen our faith and focus our eyes on the ultimate goal of that faith – to spend eternity in the presence of God with those we know and love!