When you miss a fortune, it might not be a misfortune. It might be the salvation of your soul. You didn’t get that raise that you so much wanted. It might have ruined you. You didn’t get that promotion; you didn’t get that job. Though a misfortune, it might not be a misfortune. It might be the blessing of—it might be the salvation of—your soul. The apostle Paul recognized this. Three times he prayed about that “thorn in the flesh,” whatever it was, 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. And it doesn’t matter what it was; you can speculate all you want. That’s not the point. Everybody has a thorn. (Now, don’t tell me it’s your wife that’s your thorn, or your husband.) But everybody has a “thorn in the flesh.” It might not be what Paul’s thorn was, but that’s not the question. A thorn pricks, a thorn is a bothersome thing. He prayed three times that it be removed, and, finally, the Lord said to him, in effect, “Paul, can’t you accept ‘NO’ as an answer? I answered your question, I answered your pride, and I said, ‘NO.’” Now, you don’t have to answer in the affirmative to answer. And sometimes God’s answer is, “NO.” And that’s just as emphatic as saying, “Yes.” Paul could take that. Some people can’t take that. But Paul said, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities…for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

My, what power God has! Power that is unbelievable! He’s called “the Almighty.” When we pray unto Him, He has power we never dreamed of. But as somebody said, “I have to thank God that not all of my prayers have been answered!” Sometimes, we really don’t know what is best for us. In Romans 8:26, when He said, “We don’t know what to pray for,” well, don’t we really? Didn’t He say to pray for the kingdom, Matthew 6:9-13? Didn’t He say to pray one for another, James 5:16?

But there are some things we don’t know. We are behind the scenes, and we can’t see what’s on the other side. God can. And many times, because we don’t know, we don’t know what’s best for ourselves. God does. IF we could, and would, only “just leave it in His hand!” But, many times we pray for something that’s “after the fact.” There was this little boy, and he was praying. He asked the Lord to bless Mom and Dad, and then he said, “Make Albuquerque the capital of New Mexico.” And his mother asked, “Honey, why did you pray for that?” And the little boy said, “ ’cause that’s what I put on my examination paper at school today.”

Many times, we come to a conclusion, and then we pray God will arrive. We’d better do our praying FIRST and THEN come to a conclusion. For instance: You just received word that some precious one, a dear loved one, has been injured in a serious car accident some miles away. And you pray, “Oh Lord, please let him still be alive.” What if he isn’t? That prayer isn’t going to change it, you see. You might pray, “Lord, if he is still alive, may he be spared, if it be Your Will.” But what if he’s was going to be a “vegetable” for the rest of his life? You never know.

Though, many times, we don’t know what’s best, God does. And so, if we could just leave it in the hand of God… In 1 John 5:14 and 15, we can have this confidence “that, if we ask any thing (ANY THING) according to His Will, He hears us.” Nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer, except that which lies beyond the Will of God. Now, tonight, all of us here could start praying, and go all night long in our prayers, that, in Albuquerque, in the morning, the sun would rise in the west and set in the east. It’s just not going to happen that way! It doesn’t matter how many people join in prayer, it doesn’t matter how sincere we are in prayer, if it’s not according to His Will. We might start praying that gravity would start pulling up, instead of down. It’s just not going to work that way. You might start praying that we’d have to dig down to harvest apples because the trees grew that way, but it’s just not going to happen that way.

A little boy told his mother he wanted to go out and play catch with God, and his mother said, “WHAT?!?” And he told her again, and she said, “How are you going to do that?” He said, “Well, I just throw the ball up and God throws it back.” He didn’t know anything about gravity. But God has, in nature, certain laws. It doesn’t matter who is involved. For instance, a little baby gets too close to the edge, say, of a balcony; and the baby falls several feet onto the hard concrete pavement below. Now, because the baby is innocent and precious and lovable, does that mean that, all of a sudden, God’s natural laws will not work like they did before that baby got too close to the edge, and then fell off? Will the body of that little baby miraculously become like a rubber ball? No.

Lets suppose that a man gets drunk and then gets into an automobile. He starts out, loses control and crashes into another vehicle, in which there is a mother and baby, and they are both killed. And then somebody says, “It must be the Will of God.” Has it EVER been God’s Will that a man gets drunk? It never has been. Has it ever been God’s Will that a man try to drive in that condition? It never has been. Has it ever been His Will that a drunk man looses control of his car, and crashes into a car wherein are two innocent people? No, it never has been God’s Will. But, you see? God’s laws of nature work, whether it involves a Christian, or someone else.

What if, on the highway, a Christian was exempt from any possible accident? Wouldn’t that be something?!? Everybody would become a Christian QUICK, wouldn’t they? (The Lord talks about those who are only after the loaves and fishes.) If you’re on the highway—even if you’re the best person ever; even if you’re the most devoted, the most consecrated of people; even if you’re just giving yourself so completely to the Lord that it’s amazing—it’s still possible for you to be in an accident, injured and maybe even killed, because God’s laws of nature are not suspended for anyone. When two vehicles come together at great speed, the laws of nature say something’s going to happen. There might not always be a death, but there could be. God’s laws work certain ways, regardless of who might be involved, whether an innocent Christian, a baby, what have you.