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Q. How should you pray about a relationship you can't avoid with a person you can't stand?

A. Let me tell you about Don. Don worked in a large insurance company for a boss he simply couldn't stand. It got to the point all Don could think about was how miserable this man was making his life, and about what he was going to say or do the next time he saw him. It was eating him alive, giving him sleepless nights.

Finally Don shared his situation with a friend, the Rev. Sam Shoemaker. "Don, you've got some serious praying to do," Sam told him. "You've got to start praying for this man you find so unbearable." It went against his very nature, but Don finally accepted the challenge and gave it a try.

One day a few months later, as Don was passing his boss's office, the man called him in.

"What is it with you?" the man said in a puzzled voice.

"What do you mean?" asked Don.

"I mean what's happened to you? You've changed!"

It turned out, as it often does, that the relationship problem causing Don such grief owed as much to Don's attitude as to his boss. Before it could be resolved, a fundamental change had to take place in Don. When Don began to pray earnestly for his boss, it was his own heart that God changed.

Not all our problems are as extreme as Don's, nor will the answers to them always be so clear-cut. But the basic principle is the same: God can change outside circumstances, and frequently does. But more often He changes us.

John Guest is an evangelist based in Sewickly, Pennsylvania.

Adapted from: Fairchild, Opening Windows (Howard, 1999) with permission.

For your convenience, Faith in Leadership is available in the ChristianityToday.com bookstore.

Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Almighty God: Working from my own capacities doesn't get me far. Show me how to draw on Your unlimited resources.

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