The Lord's Prayer

Chances are, all of us have had, or are currently experiencing, painful situations that we can’t control. A wayward child. A sick child. A waning parent. A terminal illness. While some situations are short-lived, others might go on for decades. Speaking from experience, it’s hard to let go of those lingering situations. We often exhaust ourselves mentally and emotionally, hoping we can affect the outcome, but our efforts and our prayers seem to go nowhere at all. During such times of feeling utterly helpless, I find great comfort in praying “The Lord’s Prayer,” found in Matthew 6, where Jesus instructs his disciples how to pray:

"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

As hard as it is to accept, God’s will and his ways don’t always align with ours. Romans 11:33 says that God’s ways are “past finding out!” I don’t think the exclamation point at the end of that sentence is by accident. To me, it is a clear indication that some things can’t be figured out. When my sister passed away in October of 2023, I was devastated. I prayed and prayed and prayed for God to raise her up. The hardest thing I ever did was surrendering Elaine and my will to God and praying, “Thy will be done.”

“Phillips, Craig and Dean” released a powerful song a few years back called “There Is a God.” I listen to the song often. The lyrics speak to me in such personal ways, as if I wrote them myself. If you’re facing a painful situation beyond your control, and you’ve done all you can to make it better, I encourage you to download the song and put it on a playlist. I believe it will lift your head and renew your confidence that God is near you, and if nothing works out as you hoped it would, he can still be trusted with your todays and your tomorrows.

Wishing you all a night of peace and rest.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,” Isaiah 55:9.