Have you ever had a friend or child or spouse who wanted something so bad they were positively miserable without it? Maybe your husband is unhappy with his job and can only think of landing something else. Or maybe you have a friend who simply has to be married. Or maybe your child is despondent because he didn’t make the basketball team and probably never will.
How should we pray in these situations? Would you ask God to provide a new job? Would you petition him for a spouse? Would you quietly ask for six more inches for your son? How would you pray?
Here’s Jeremiah Burroughs’ (1599-1646) answer:
In other words, if people think they can’t live without some thing, they’ll still be miserable even when they get the thing they wanted so badly. Burroughs goes on to suggest:
So be careful how you pray. As Tim Keller (or was it that spirit of Jeremiah Burroughs?) has written, “We never imagine that getting our heart’s deepest desires might be the worst thing that can ever happen to us” (Counterfeit Gods, 1).
