Thank God for Another's Difficulties?

Sometimes it is easier to suffer ourselves than to watch someone we love suffer. And it may be easier to thank God for our own difficulties than to thank Him for the hardships of those we love. We naturally want to spare our loved ones any pain. 

God brought this to the attention as Barbara prayed for her sister to have the child she longed for. For ten years, Judy wanted a baby. As the months and years drug on, piling disappointment on disappointment, her heart broke with her sister. Her prayers were constantly beseeching God to give her a baby.

One morning God brought it to Barbara's attention that her prayers for her sister were very different from her prayers for her own difficulties. God had taught her to thank Him in every circumstance in her life, good or bad. He had shown her over and over how everything works together for good. She was so intent on sparing Julie pain that she was not thanking God for her circumstance, knowing that He already had the answer prepared, the timing planned, and that He was at work in her life redemptively. Barbara was unwilling to let her walk through trials to become all that God intended.

That morning she began to thank God for every day of Julie's wait. She thanked God for the baby that would be born. She thanked Him for the spiritual strength He was building in her. She thanked God for His timing. It was still several years before her baby came. Barbara didn't think that her thanksgiving hurried God's plan. It changed her outlook and released her to pray in the Spirit instead of in her own wisdom.

Thank You, Jesus, for giving grace to follow Your leading in how to pray.

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Phil. 4:4).

Sunday is a special day set aside to pray for our president. Please join with other Christians across our nation and beyond to pray earnestly for President Trump.