No Matter the Cost

Hey all!
I was just thinking about Jesus's prayer in the garden of Gethsemane (as well as something that was in a prayer by Helen Roseveare, a missionary who went to Africa). Just what it means when we pray, Your Will be done.

When I was reading about Helen Roseveare's life--how she spent a long time in Africa, being a doctor and a missionary past her limitations, but even more than all of that--she was taken captive during one of the uprisings during that time period, and she was raped and kept prisoner for 5 months before she was rescued. And it's scary to think of that for me. There were amazing times of God's provision in her life (see http://henrywen.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/the-hot-water-bottle-helen-roseveare/), but when I read about her life, the thought that came to my mind was "why didn't God protect her?" or "why did God let this kind of suffering happen to her, when she was serving Him?"

And honestly, it is a struggle for me--just seeing all the suffering in the world, and sometimes I wish God would save us from all this pain. But, I read up on her, some of her messages because I wanted to see what she had to say about her sufferings--because I knew that she must have gotten asked that question a lot.

So before I go into that, I just wanted to go into a prayer she said before she became a missionary. She had prayed to God to become a missionary, and she said, "No matter the cost." From my perspective, knowing her life story now, I wonder what she thought about the cost. Well, here's some of what she thought at any rate: http://www.suffering.net/thank.htm.

But what I really wanted to say, was just that sometimes God's will includes bad things that happen to us. Even though we're Christian, it doesn't mean that our lives will be free from pain. But sometimes, I find myself praying exactly that. I pray for good things to happen to me--find a relationship, get good grades, and what not, and that's not bad. I certainly think that we can pray for that stuff, but there also comes a point where we all have to realize that maybe God doesn't want us to have good grades. Maybe God doesn't want me to be married. And these are things that I hold so tightly onto that it's honestly, honestly scary to pray to God--Your Will be done. It's definitely not something to say casually--ultimately, it is something that we have to say, because God is God and we are not. I know that what God may want may not be what I want, but I guess a good thing to remember is--trust in the Lord. There must be a reason for all of this, and even if we don't understand the reason, we know the One we trust.

Psalm 62

¹¹Once God has spoken;
Twice I have heard this:
That power belongs to God;

¹²And lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord,
For You recompense a man according to his work.

God is loving, and God is strong. And God has given us His promises. He can keep us from harm, but when we do suffer, I think we can say that God has allowed us to suffer in this way for a purpose. We know that it's not just a fruitless suffering, but rather something that will further His purpose and His work in us. We have this hope:

Romans 5

³And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;⁴and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; ⁵and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

And we also know that He won't allow us to go through something that we can't handle, but rather gives us the grace to get through it.

And most of all, He will always be there with us, through it all. We may not like what happens, but He is faithful, and He loves us, and He will carry us through everything.

Romans 8
³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I used to think that prayer was this kind of formula that I had to learn, and that once I learned it, I could get the things that I wanted. If I prayed with some kind of verse, if I made it seem like the thing that I wanted was beneficial to God's glory, I thought that I could make God do something for me or give me something. I've learned a little bit more about prayer. A large part of prayer is simply just talking to God--whether it be about our struggles in life, about following His Word, about our sins and confessing them, about praying for help, and telling Him how we're doing. And those times are awesome--just knowing that we can be completely honest with how sinful we are, and how we sometimes fail at keeping His Word, and sometimes don't even want to obey it. We can pray for Him to work in us, and He does!

And some of prayer is about committing things to God. We can come to God and tell Him about the things we want--I mean, there's no point in hiding things and trying to be more spiritual than we are because God already knows our entire heart, and it's so freeing for us to know that we don't have to be something that we're not--but at the end, I guess we just have to realize that, in light of the things we want, that we also have to tell Him--Your Will be done. And it's not something that comes easy, but it's something that hopefully He gives us the strength to say and to really mean it. If we don't mean it, then there's really no point in saying it--but what we can ask Him for is to want to mean it, and hopefully He changes our hearts.

Note: !
But to be sure, I think it's alright to ask for stuff we want. I know I'm going to continue to pray for things that I would like, but also just learning to accept His answers, and well, praying for stuff that is in His Will will come later I think.

But well, any comments? Questions? Objections? Because I don't think anyone really understands the whole picture, so for sure, there has to be more I think.