| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 11 |
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No doubt there are many prayers whose answer seems to come in this way. David pleaded for his sick child that it might live. The child died. But when David knew it was dead, he rose from his place of penitent pleading, washed away his tears and went to God’s house and worshipped. Then, returning to his home, he astonished the members of his household by the way he bore himself. His prayer had not kept his child in life, but it had brought into the king’s heart such divine comfort, that his sorrow was turned into joy.
St. Paul earnestly and importunately besought the Lord to take away his “thorn in the flesh.” The painful affliction was not removed, and yet there is evidence that the prayer availed in its working. There came to the apostle a word of assurance – “My grace is sufficient for thee: for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Immediately afterward we hear the triumphant rejoicing, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the strength of Christ may rest upon me.” It is evident that while the prayer was not answered in the removing of the trouble, it was answered in the coming into the apostle’s heart of such an accession of divine strength that he was able now to keep his thorn and rejoice, not merely in spite of it, but even on account of it. The answer which came was indeed a greater manifestation of the power of prayer than if the trial had been wholly taken away.
In our Lord’s experience in Gethsemane we have another example of a like working of prayer. The cup for whose taking away the Holy Sufferer pleaded with strong crying and tears was not withdrawn, and yet the anguish of his heart grew less and less intense until we hear the word of victory, “The cup which the Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” The supplication availed in its working, not in saving Him from the bitter experiences on which He was entering, but in the giving of help which enabled Him to pass through all the terrible fifteen hours that followed, without murmuring.
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