A Prayer God Will Always Say Yes To (tenth in a series of ten)

Have you ever asked yourself “Will I ever be happy again?” The tenth prayer God always answers is “God, please bring good out of this bad situation” is one of the most powerful prayers you can every bring to God; and He will always answer Yes. But it’s also one of the toughest prayers to prayer. The reason is that when you and I are right in the middle of suffering, it’s very hard to calmly consider all the wonderful things that might come out of whatever’s happening.

But the fact is, in a Christian’s life, if it weren’t for the bad experiences – failure, humiliation, tragedy – sometimes the very best experiences would never have happened. Nothing is truly all bad unless we think it’s all bad. For a believer, there will always be something good that God can work out of what’s happening to you.

Overcoming adversity is not just a matter of willpower. Sometimes people can do that, but not always. The only Person Who can always overcome adversity and bring good out of it is God Himself. God alone has the power to bring good our of bad.

God will always answer “God, please help me get through this suffering,” by helping you, often in unexpected ways. God promises, to those who ask Him in prayer and are trying their best to do His will, that He will bring good out of every single misfortune you encounter in life, and will turn every instance of suffering into an opportunity for greater and deeper joy.

The Bible verse that this prayer is based on is found in Romans 8:28 “All things work together for good, for those who Love God and are called according to His purpose.

Maybe you’re wondering how can that possibly be true. How can losing your job be good? How can your house going into foreclosure be good? How can getting cancer, or losing a child, becoming permanently disabled, or any other hardship be good?

Maybe the main thing to understand is that we probably can’t fully grasp how God can pull good out of every bad situation, but we can know that He has already shown He that He can do it.

Think about the worst evil that has ever happened. The murder of God Himself, in the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son. The single greatest crime ever. And out of that worst of all sin came our redemption, salvation from sin. God did not allow people to remain hopeless and lost in sin, but instead brought untold good out of untold evil.

There’s a great lesson for you and me in that. If God is able to turn the worst kind of evil into the best kind of good, then He can certainly turn lesser kinds of evil into good as well. He can certainly take the bad things in your lives and mine, and bring some kind of blessing out of them.

Somehow, some way, God is able to orchestrate what freely happens in our world in order to produce the outcome that He desires without taking away even one little bit of our freedom to make moral choices.

The good may not always be obvious. You may not see it right away. You may not see it for a long time. But it will be there.
* Your suffering will make you more like the Lord Jesus.
* People will have an opportunity to love you and bring kindness into your life.
* Others you may never meet will be affected by your willingness to believe God and keep faith with Him.

God’s timing will be perfect in bringing the good out of what’s happening to you right now.

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These thoughts on prayer are taken from the Catholic author Anthony DeStefano's delightful book, "Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To: Divine Answers To Life's Most Difficult Problems."

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