| The Golden Gate of Prayer |
Chapter 9 |
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There is another phase of the doing of the will of God. Sometimes when the words of the prayer are uttered they mean submission to pain of suffering. It was so in the life of Christ himself. His words as he came into the world were, “I delight to do thy will, O my God.” He went through his years of ministry, doing the Father’s will with joy. It was a wonderful ministry. Wherever he went he left benedictions. But at last he came to an hour when the will of God meant suffering and sacrifice for him. Yet he faltered not. Still it was, “Not my will, but thine, be done.”
In nearly every life there come hours when instead of the active doing of the Father’s will, there must be suffering or sorrow. One who has been intensely busy in life, while in the very midst of a brilliant service for God and men is stricken down and laid aside. It brings immeasurable comfort in such a case to believe that the will of God is being done now in the quiet room, with hands folded, just as truly and as acceptably as it used to be done in the days of active duty when the hands were full of tasks and active services. One in such experiences told a friend how it helped her, when in pain at night, to feel that she was still “working away at God’s will.” The words spoke of courage, with no repining. She felt that she was as really doing God’s will on her bed, in her suffering, by keeping sweet, patient, and trustful as ever she did when she was in the ways of busy life, — still working away at his will.
All of us come to points sometime, somewhere, in life, when for a season, at least, we can no longer go on with the things we have been doing with delight, but must turn aside and lie down in seeming idleness. Or we are called to suffer or to endure loss. Or the path on which we must go is steep and rough.
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