Prayer Answered With Trials

                      Dare to Pray

I’ve prayed, “O God, make me like Christ,”
And “Will You do Your work in me?”
“Restore and cause Your face to shine,”
And “Teach me, Lord, to do Your will.”
 
Such prayers as these are Your delight.
Your interest in these things is great
Because You long to see me grow
And Christ is praised when I’m like Him.

And when I pray You’d make me grow,
There’s just one way to bring results.
The process is through trials and tests;
Great vict’ries come through pushing hard.

So when You work, Your favor’s shown.

I can’t resist or even fret,
But see tests as Your means to teach
And take the methods that You send.

I cannot quibble with Your plan -

Must let You answer in Your way.
Each day I must see everything
As opportunity to grow.

If I’d known what my prayers would mean

And how You’d bring results about!
But even now, knowing the way,
“Do what it takes,” I dare to pray.

We have often heard the statement that if we are going to pray for patience, then we should expect trials. Praying for spiritual growth can be somewhat the same. This should not surprise us. When we want to grow physical muscles, we need to have a good diet and work against resistance. We build our spiritual muscles in the same way. We need a good diet – lots of the Word of God. We also need to work against resistance.

The real-life challenges provide opportunities for us to strengthen our muscles as we put into practice the things we have learned during our time in the Word. The trials stretch us and cause pain just like physical exercise does. They are also effective just like physical exercise. Is the pain worth the profit? Absolutely. From a somewhat selfish standpoint, our growth through trials reassures us that our faith is alive and real. Better than that, increasing maturity helps us to better face the realities of life and fosters a sweet, peaceful communion with God. Most importantly, it points others to God, the only source capable of producing such growth and change.

If we pray for spiritual maturity, will trials come? Most likely. We must dare to pray for it anyway, and then allow God to do His work in His way.

“It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.” Psalm 119:71 (NASB)