[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0513":3},"MAY 13\r\nWe know not what we should pray for as we ought (Rom.8:26).\r\nMuch that perplexes us in our Christian experience is but the\r\nanswer to our prayers. We pray for patience, & our Father sends  those who tax us to the utmost; for \"tribulation worketh patience.\"\r\nWe pray for submission, & God sends sufferings; for \"we learn obedience by the things we suffer.\"\r\nWe pray for unselfishness, & God gives us opportunities to sacrifice ourselves by thinking on the things of others, & by laying down our lives for the brethren.\r\nWe pray for strength & humility, & some messenger of Satan torments us until we lie in the dust crying for its removal.\r\nWe pray, \"Lord, increase our faith,\" & money takes wings; or the children are alarmingly ill; or a servant comes who is careless,\r\nextravagant, untidy or slow, or some hitherto unknown trial calls   for an increase of faith along a line where we have not needed to exercise much faith before.\r\nWe pray for the Lamb-life, & are given a portion of lowly service,\r\nor we are injured & must week no redress; for \"he was led as a lamb\r\n\r\nto the slaughter &...opened not his mouth.\"\r\nWe pray for gentleness, & there comes a perfect storm of temptation\r\nto harshness & irritability. We pray for quietness, & every nerve is strung to the utmost tension, so that looking to Him we may   learn that when He giveth quietness, no one can make trouble.\r\nWe pray for love, & God sends peculiar suffering & puts us with\r\napparently unlovely people, & lets them say things which rasp the nerves & lacerate the heart; for love suffereth long & is kind,\r\nlove is not impolite, love is not provoked. Love beareth all\r\nthings, believeth, hopeth & endureth, love never faileth. We pray  for likeness to Jesus, & the answer is, \"I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.\" \"Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong?\" \"Are ye able?\"\r\nThe way to peace & victory is to accept every circumstance, every trial, straight from the hand of a loving Father; & to live up in\r\nthe heavenly places, above the clouds, in the very presence of the Throne, & to look down from the Glory upon our environment as\r\nlovingly & divinely appointed. --Selected.\r\nI prayed for strength, and then I lost awhile All sense of nearness, human and divine;\r\nThe love I leaned on failed and pierced my heart,\r\nThe hands I clung to loosed themselves from mine; But while I swayed, weak, trembling, and alone,\r\nThe everlasting arms upheld my own.\r\nI prayed for light; the sun went down in clouds, The moon was darkened by a misty doubt,\r\nThe stars of heaven were dimmed by earthly fears,\r\nAnd all my little candle flames burned out;\r\nBut while I sat in shadow, wrapped in night,\r\nThe face of Christ made all the darkness bright.\r\nI prayed for peace, and dreamed of restful ease, A slumber drugged from pain, a hushed repose;  Above my head the skies were black with storm, And fiercer grew the onslaught of my foes;\r\nBut while the battle raged, and wild winds blew, I heard His voice and perfect peace I knew.\r\nI thank Thee, Lord, Thou wert too wise to heed\r\nMy feeble prayers, and answer as I sought,\r\nSince these rich gifts Thy bounty has bestowed\r\nHave brought me more than all I asked or thought;\r\nGiver of good, so answer each request\r\nWith Thine own giving, better than my best. --Annie Johnson Flint.",1783499793020]