A Prayer a Day: Lord, good afternoon. Today I have been thinking about the many scriptures, that say when we ask in your will, that you, God, hear us. 1John 5:14 reads, “This is the confidence that we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” Also, consider Mark 11:24, “Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” These are not difficult passages, Lord, as long as we pray fairly casually. But, when we have the deepest longings of our hearts lifted up in prayer and our prayers are not answered in the way we wanted, it is hard to hold firmly to these scriptures. The first one in 1John doesn’t say that you answer our prayers with the answer we desire. It says if we ask according to your will, God, that you hear us. When our children were small and I heard them making requests to me, often for another piece of candy before bed, it was not in my will. I heard their requests, but sometimes my answer was no. Sometimes, out of my love for them, I had to tell them no. I think it must be the same with you, Lord. Sometimes, we are praying asking you for something, and out of love, and with your total knowledge and understanding of how everything in the world fits together: we pray and the answer is no. The Mark 11:24 passage says whatever we ask, believe and you will have your prayer answered. On December 8, 2017, my dear sister, Mabel, was diagnosed with 4th stage colon cancer. I have never prayed harder for anyone to be healed. She died on December 27, 2017. In the grief of her death, I have asked myself, why you, Lord, didn’t answer my prayer. It took me a while to realize, Lord, you did answer my prayer, and the answer was no to healing her body. When things like this happen, we evaluate again what we believe about your nature, Lord. I know that you answered my prayer with wisdom, grace, and mercy.Mabel died so quickly, that she missed all the suffering that she wanted so much to be spared. We love you, Lord, we know that you are our Heavenly Father, a loving parent, and sometimes you have to tell us no. Holy God, help us to trust you with decisions, that are way above our pay scale. Come Holy Spirit and make it so: amen.