Bernie May tells in his booklet Learning to Trust that he received an urgent phone message from Forrey Zander, director of a regional Wycliffe Bible Translators’ office. A young Asian lady was considering returning home as a Bible translator but was short $1000 needed to enroll in the Linguistics school.

We’re treading on holy ground when we listen to someone who is in earnest prayer. Yet Paul invites us to do just that. If read superficially, Paul’s prayers may seem to be rather general and don’t apply to those for whom we pray. On the contrary, Paul requested exactly what produces spiritual maturity. Often we pray prayers that a hundred years from now it won’t matter whether they were answered or not, but answers to Paul’s prayers have eternal consequences.

Years ago I heard a sermon on forgiveness, and one statement the speaker made has been a help to me. It's a familiar quote: “To know all is to forgive all.”

After Michelle received a rejection letter for an honor she wanted, she said “I thought the Lord had told me not to apply, but one of my professors encouraged me to and I didn’t want to disappoint him.” She added, “The Lord wanted to spare me this hurt.”

One morning I disagreed with someone. Although I wanted to state my disagreement, I could sense my words would not be spoken in love, so I silently prayed, “You’re my Refuge, Lord. I hide in You. I won’t say a word You don’t provide.”

Amy Carmichael ministered with children in India for over 50 years. She was impressed at an early age that "nothing is important but that which is eternal." Her book Thou Givest...They Gather is a collection of truths she gleaned from scripture.

After Michele had been praying for a friend for years, she complained to the Lord, “I’ve invested all this heartache and burden praying for this person, but I wonder if anything is happening. Are my prayers making any difference? I want a day off from interceding.”

A group of guerrilla soldiers during the civil war of the sixties in the ex-Belgian Congo, beat and kicked Helen Roseveare. She felt terribly alone. Couldn’t God have stepped in and protected her? Didn’t He care? She was almost sick with fear and apprehension.