Dear Amy,

How can we know what we should pray for?

There’s quite a responsibility here, don’t you think? After all, Jesus said,

“Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

― John 14:13-14

Have you ever been in a prayer meeting where someone was sharing a prayer request, and they seemed to take aeons to lay out every painstaking detail about their situation? Well, we can’t risk praying for the wrong thing, can we?

But could there be another way to see this?

You’re surely familiar with the story of Joseph. After being sold into slavery by his brothers and thrown into prison in Egypt for a crime he didn’t commit, God raised him up to be second only to Pharaoh himself in all the land, and used him to deliver the Israelites from famine. Praise the Lord!

Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen. And they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly.

― Genesis 47:27

Some years later, however, things apparently weren’t going quite so well.

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.

― Exodus 2:23

Is this really what God had intended? Had it somehow all gone horribly wrong? Not really.

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel⸺and God knew.

― Exodus 2:24-25

God knew. He didn’t need to be told. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t noticed what was happening to his people, his chosen ones, his beloved.

Then what happened? What happened is that God met with Moses in the burning bush.

Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

― Exodus 3:7-8

God already knew what he was going to do and it wasn’t merely to alleviate the suffering of the Israelites. He was going to bless them far beyond that, far beyond imagining, gifting to them a land flowing with milk and honey⸺a land that would demonstrate his sovereign choice, his faithfulness to his covenant promise, his grace and kindness to his people, and ultimately his rescue for all of humankind. No-one was asking for this!

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

― Ephesians 3:20-21

Simply cry out to God, Amy, Lord have mercy! He already knows what to do. 🙏