Pain as a Disguised Answer to Prayer

Recently my beloved daughter-in-law, Melody Fillmore, posted a prayer that she had written to her Facebook page.  It reads:
God give me the strength to wake up with hope and joy each morning. Give me calm in the midst of madness. Let peace be my armor and kindness my arrows. Open my heart to that which is unseen. Give me grace to accept the things I can not change in my children, and the courage to change the things I can in me. Revive my tired body and grant me rest in the shadow of your wings.

Two years after she wrote this she went in for a “minor” medical procedure that was supposed to have been a same-day surgery.  She ended up in intensive care for over two weeks and nearly dying from septic shock.  She still suffers from the aftereffects of the episode.

I was struck by how much of her prayer was answered in that life threatening incident.  Because she came near to death she now knows how joyful the privilege of waking in the morning really is.  In the hospital she saw new aspects of the Lord’s love for her in ways she had never before seen. Once home she spent many weeks being granted peaceful recovery time as her friends and family took over the care of her children and managing her household.  She was truly given rest for her tired body and rest in the shadow of God’s protective care for her.

Although her medical crisis was NOT caused by her prayer for strength and rest, the Lord used that stressful time to grant her some of the deep desires of her heart.

I wonder what God is granting you in the midst of your pain, be it physical, emotional or spiritual.  Is there a gift or an answered prayer hidden underneath the ugly wrapping of your suffering?

Lord, please grant us eyes to see the gifts in disguise covered up in our Sacred Suffering.

2 opinions on “Pain as a Disguised Answer to Prayer”

  1. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it
    seems as though you relied on the video to make your point.
    You clearly know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting
    videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?

    1. Thank you for that encouragement. These posts are designed to be a quick boost of encouragement BUT more is on the way, much much more. In the meantime, if you haven’t yet, check out the book, Sacred Suffering. And please keep coming back to this site as we will be adding a whole in-depth teaching series on how to handle adversity in out lives.

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