LISTEN ONLINEHaving taxied to the runway with a squirming toddler (who had to stay buckled in until airborne), my flight was suddenly delayed. Agonising minutes passed. The in-flight entertainment clicked on. “Oh no, please Lord, don’t let it be an hour,” I prayed. And when the next sitcom episode started, “Please Lord, not two hours.”
“Pray something else!” I felt God say. So instead of praying for a change of circumstances, I asked for what I needed to endure them: “Lord, give me grace to look after my child for as long as this delay takes.”
I learnt a valuable lesson that day about God’s “good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2). Sometimes, He isn’t just going to ‘airlift’ me out of tough times; He wants me to seek His strength and presence through them. I think this is part of what Paul means when he calls us to be a “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1). No longer am I living for my own agenda but surrendering to God’s.
“Be transformed,” Paul says (v. 2). Or, as God prompted me, “Pray something else.” Rather than only asking God to change our adverse circumstances (a very natural response), God invites us to entrust our needs and circumstances to Him.
Of course, we can always pray for rescue. But perhaps we can learn to seek something deeper too: “Lord, show me Your will in this; give me what I need to endure it.”