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「我們本不曉得當怎樣禱告。」（聖經羅馬書八章 26 節）
神給我們的禱告的答應，常出我們意外。
我們求忍耐，神卻給我們患難；因為「患難生忍耐」（聖經羅馬書五章 3 節）。
我們求順服，神卻給我們苦難，好使我們「因所受的苦難學了順從」（聖經希伯來書五章 8 節）
我們「求主加增我們的信心」（聖經路加福音十七章 5 節），上帝卻使我們傷財、害病、失業、遭難，逼我們比前更運用信心。
我們求羔羊的生命，神卻給我們最低微的職業，使我們受逼迫，因為「祂像羊羔被牽到宰殺之地....不開口」（以賽亞書五十三章 7 節）。
我們求溫柔，神卻給我們很多惹厭和激怒的東西。
我們求愛心，神卻放我們在最不可愛的人中，讓他們刺激我們的神經，刺傷我們的赤心；因為愛是恆久忍耐，又有恩慈；愛是不求自己的益處，愛是不輕易發怒；愛是凡事包容、凡事相信、凡事盼望、凡事忍耐；愛是永不止息。
得勝和得安息的方法，就是直接從愛父的手中，接受祂所給你的每一個環境，每一個試煉，而享受其中互相效力的益處。 ── 選
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"We know not what we should pray for as we ought." (Rom. 8:26.)
MUCH that perplexes us in our Christian experience is but the answer to our prayers. We pray for patience, and our Father sends those who tax us to the utmost; for "tribulation worketh patience."
We pray for submission, and God sends sufferings; for "we learn obedience by the things we suffer."
We pray for unselfishness, and God gives us opportunities to sacrifice ourselves by thinking on the things of others, and by laying down our lives for the brethren.
We pray for strength and humility, and some messenger of Satan torments us until we lie in the dust crying for its removal.
We pray, "Lord, increase our faith," and money takes wings; or the children are alarmingly ill; or a servant comes who is careless, extravagant, untidy or slow, or some hitherto unknown trial calls for an increase of faith along a line where we have not needed to exercise much faith before.
We pray for the Lamb-life, and are given a portion of lowly service, or we are injured and must seek no redress; for "he was led as a lamb to slaughter and……Opened not his mouth."
We pray for gentleness, and there comes a perfect storm of temptation to harshness and irritability. We pray for quietness, and every nerve is strung to the utmost tension, so that looking to Him we may learn that when He giveth quietness, no one can make trouble.
We pray for love, and God sends peculiar suffering and puts us with apparently unlovely people, and lets them say things which rasp the nerves and lacerate the heart; for love suffereth long and is kind, love is not impolite, love is not provoked. LOVE BEARETH ALL THINGS, believeth, hopeth and endureth, love never faileth. We pray for likeness to Jesus, and the answer is, "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." "Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong?" "Are ye able?"
The way to peace and victory is to accept every circumstance, every trial, straight from the hand of la loving Father; and to live up in the heavenly places, above the clouds, in the very presence of the Throne, and to look down from the Glory upon our environment as lovingly and divinely appointed. --- Selected.
I prayed for strength, and then I lost awhile, All sense of nearness, human and divine; The love I leaned on failed and pierced my heart, The hands I clung to loosed themselves from mine; But while I swayed, weak, trembling, and alone, The everlasting arms upheld my own.
I prayed for light; the sun went down in clouds, The moon was darkened by a misty doubt, The stars of heaven were dimmed by earthly fears, And all my little candle flames burned out; But while I sat in shadow, wrapped in night, The face of Christ made all the darkness bright.
I prayed for peace, and dreamed of restful ease, A slumber drugged from pain, a hushed repose; Above my head the skies were black with storm, And fiercer grew the onslaught of my foes; But while the battle raged, and wild winds blew, I heard His voice and perfect peace I knew.
I thank Thee, Lord, Thou wert too wise to heed, My feeble prayers, and answer as I sought, Since these rich gifts Thy bounty has bestowed, Have brought me more than all I asked or thought; Giver of good, so answer each request, With Thine own giving, better than my best. ─Annie Johnson Flint
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