Trusting God to Work Things Out
Monday of the First Week of Lent – February 23, 2015
EVAGRIUS PONTICUS wrote, “Often in my prayers I kept asking God for what I thought was good. I repeatedly made personal requests, unreasonably coercing God. I was not able to trust God’s providence to work things out for my best interests. When I got what I sought, I was sorry that I had insisted on my own desires. Things did not turn out the way I had imagined.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 356.]
Haven’t we all had the experience of asking God for something in prayer, then receiving what we requested. But after our prayer is "answered,” we slowly discover that it may not have been in our best interest. We received something that actually inhibited our growth, healing, or wholeness in God.
How little we see of the big picture from where we live. We see “through a glass darkly,” says the Apostle Paul. We don’t truly know what is best for us.
Somehow, our prayer and contemplation invites us to dispose ourselves to the work of God, whatever that is. We are invited to open ourselves to God’s healing and wholeness, no matter how it is packaged for our lives.
Evagrius put it well: In prayer, trust God’s providence and mercy to work out things that are in your best interest, the best interests of others, and ultimately for the healing of the world.
EVAGRIUS PONTICUS wrote, “Often in my prayers I kept asking God for what I thought was good. I repeatedly made personal requests, unreasonably coercing God. I was not able to trust God’s providence to work things out for my best interests. When I got what I sought, I was sorry that I had insisted on my own desires. Things did not turn out the way I had imagined.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 356.]
Haven’t we all had the experience of asking God for something in prayer, then receiving what we requested. But after our prayer is "answered,” we slowly discover that it may not have been in our best interest. We received something that actually inhibited our growth, healing, or wholeness in God.
How little we see of the big picture from where we live. We see “through a glass darkly,” says the Apostle Paul. We don’t truly know what is best for us.
Somehow, our prayer and contemplation invites us to dispose ourselves to the work of God, whatever that is. We are invited to open ourselves to God’s healing and wholeness, no matter how it is packaged for our lives.
Evagrius put it well: In prayer, trust God’s providence and mercy to work out things that are in your best interest, the best interests of others, and ultimately for the healing of the world.
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