The more I pray, the worse things get!

Have you ever felt that way? Recently a friend said she was part of a group of mothers who had been praying together for their children since they were in junior high school. The children are now young adults in their early twenties, and their lives seemed to be falling apart. Everything is going wrong!

This may seem to be the case, but when we feel this way, we should come to the Lord and ask for His perspective. It may well be that in every trial these adult children are facing, God is indeed answering the prayers their mothers have prayed over the years--but with His priority in mind. 

Have we ever prayed that the Lord would conform our son or daughter to the image of His Son? Or that He would make the fruit of the Spirit (including patience!) a reality in their lives? Our Lord is far more interested in building a person’s character than in clearing the path before him. 

We must never give up on prayer--or the Lord, Who loves those we pray for far more than we are even capable of loving them. Their lives may not be going the direction we had hoped or prayed for, and they may end up being entirely different people than we have ever imagined they would become. But we can be confident of this one thing, that He who has begun a good work in them is faithful, and He will complete it [Philippians 1:6]. He is God, and we are not. Thank goodness, He is God--and we are not.