Key Bible Verse: For we don't even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray (Romans 8:26). Bonus Reading: Romans 8:26-30

Ken Smith learned of a company housed in the World Trade Center and decimated by the attack. The survivors, he says, were troubled by the circumstances that separated them from the deaths of their coworkers:

• The head of the company got in late that day because he wanted to be with a child starting kindergarten.


• Another man is alive because it was his turn to bring donuts.


• Another was delayed because of an accident on the New Jersey Turnpike.


• One missed his bus.


• One person's car wouldn't start.


• One went back to answer the telephone.


• A man with new shoes developed a blister. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid.

If any of these were regularly Christians, they might have prayed for God to spare them the inconvenience of that morning. But the inconvenience spared their lives. Before we adopt a prayer philosophy that requires God to provide all our wants, we must consider the limitations of our understanding. In our finite wisdom, we may least want what an infinitely wise God will most bless!

—Bryan Chapell in Praying Backwards

My Response: A prayer I'm grateful God didn't answer as I requested is …

Adapted from Praying Backwards (Baker, 2005) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Heavenly Father, focus my heart on seeking Christ's purposes more than my own and on bringing Him glory.

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