PRAYER REFINES US

Prayer Refines Us

by Judith Lawrence

Unknown to you, prayer is always at the service of destiny. Your days and ways are never simply as they appear on the surface. Human vision is always limited and selective, and you never see the whole picture. The Providence that weaves your days sees the greater horizon and knows what your life needs in order for you to come fully to birth as the person you are called to be. Prayer refines you, so that you may become worthy of your possibility and destiny. The irony of being here is that sometimes it is precisely what you want to avoid that brings you further towards creativity and compassion. John O’Donahue, Eternal Echoes, Page 190

We ask in prayer for certain things because we think that’s what is needed in our lives—needed to make us better people, needed to make us whole, or needed to fulfill our calling.

However, we do not see the whole picture of our lives; God is the one who weaves our days and sees the greater horizon; Providence is the one who knows what we need in order to become the person we are called to be.

For that reason, our prayers are often answered in a way that is unlike the thing for which we asked; our prayers are answered in a way that refines us, in a way that brings us to our full possibility, through a way that we would rather not go but will bring us to God’s place for us.

Judith Lawrence

Judith Lawrence lives in Muskoka, Ontario, a land of lakes, forests, and wildlife. She began to write seriously when she was in her fifties and has written three non-fiction spiritual books. Judith has also written a book of mystical poetry and one of short stories; she writes a weekly blog about contemplation and records a podcast meditation monthly.

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