Prayer and God's Plans

"If God is sovereign, then he is in control of the details of my life.

If he is loving, then he is going to be shaping the details of my life for my good.

If he is all-wise, then he's not going to do everything I want because I don't know what I need.

If he is patient, then he is going to take the time to do all this.

When we put all these things together -- God's sovereignty, love, wisdom, and patience -- we have a divine story.

People often talk about prayer as if it is disconnected from what God is doing in their lives. But we are actors in his drama, listening for our lives, quieting our hearts so we can hear the voice of the Playwright.

You can't have a good story without tension and conflict, without things going wrong. Unanswered prayers create some of the tensions in the story God is weaving into our lives."

-from A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller