God's Ways of Answering Prayer

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 7
 
“FOR my ways are not your ways,” is a truth often seen in God’s methods of answering our petitions.
A Christian mother sat by the dying bed of her child, a lovely little girl, bright and winning. As the mother watched the shadow of death stealing over the sweet face, and the eyes that had sparkled with glee grow glassy and staring, she exclaimed, in agony, “I never thought it would come to this. Whenever I knelt in prayer, I asked God to make us a happy family by-and-by in heaven, as we had been a happy family on earth. But I did not mean in this way. I wanted my dear child to live a long life before God took her. Is this the way He answers my prayer?” Perhaps, could she have seen, as God saw, the dangers to which that little one would have been exposed, had she lived to grow up; could she have foreseen the snares for the young feet, or the sorrows for the young heart, she would have perceived that God’s way of answering her prayer was the best way. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Genesis 18:2525That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Genesis 18:25).