One illustration will suffice. A man, pressed by difficulty and
straitness, may pray that he may be moved to some place of greater
freedom and ease. He thinks that he ought to move elsewhere. He prays
for guidance and the openings of God's providence. In a short time a
vacant post presents itself: he applies for it, it is just the thing he
wished for. He continues his prayers. The post is given to another. His
prayers have not been answered: such is his conclusion; but is not the
answer really--"Not yet--not yet--wait awhile. My grace is sufficient
for thee"? He waits; he leaves his life in God's hands. After an
interval another opening occurs, and almost without an effort he is
moved to the vacant place. It is this time, perhaps, not the kind of
place he thought of; it is less interesting, it is more onerous, it
fills him with fear as he undertakes its duties. He has prayed, but the
answer came not as he wished or thought or hoped. The years go by. He
looks back from the vantage-ground of distance. He can measure his life
in better proportions. He sees now that the movements of his life have a
deep meaning. He perceives that to have gone where he wished to have
gone, and even where he prayed to be placed, would have been to miss
some of the best experiences and highest trainings of this life. He
begins to realise that there is not a spot which he has visited, not a
place where he has toiled, which has not brought to him lessons that
have been most helpful, nay, even needful, in his later life. He sees
that God has sent him here or there to fit him for work which, unknown
and unexpected in his earlier days, the future was to bring.
The least-answered prayer may be the most-answered. It is the
realisation that experiences fit us for the duties of later life which
yields to us the assurance that in the deepest sense our seemingly
disregarded prayers have been most abundantly remembered before God.
Thus, indeed, we can enter into the spirit of familiar words and
acknowledge concerning each prayer that it is
"Goodness still,
Which grants it or denies."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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