Prayer

Everyday I am learning, growing and being strengthened in faith. One of the things I was thinking about lately is prayer.
I started thinking, with everything that has gone on....where does prayer for what we hope to happen come into play? We pray for healing, we pray for safety, we pray for health, pray for children....but what happens when those things don't happen....someone doesn't get better, someone is hurt, or dies etc. If we believe in the will of God and that God is Sovereign then whether someone is healed or not seems to already pre-determined by His will. We can pray and pray for healing but if it isn't God's will then it won't happen....so why pray that way?
I understand praying for comfort, for strength, - I've felt those in very real ways....God has given me those for certain -something I've prayed for and I'm sure others have prayed for that for us as well.
But what about praying for events, healing, things to happen, divorces not to happen, people not to die etc...??
As I was thinking about this, I asked someone I trust and respect this question. The answer I received was quite simple yet very true and really answers the question well.
For the answer, we go to the Bible...
We are going to Matthew where the answer to this question is simply one of seeing the example that Jesus set - we're picking up the story of Jesus when He was with his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane.
Matthew 26:38-39 & 42-44
Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
...
He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done."
When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

If you then look in Luke, while Jesus was praying we read this:
Luke 22:41-44
He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

If our goal is to be like Jesus, then we ought to pray like Jesus too. So Jesus prayed that the cross be taken away - multiple times! Yet He trusted His Father enough to know that God knew best and that ultimately it was God's will that would be done and not His own. So to me this says, (And what I was reminded of today) we ought to pray for what it is that we desire, however, pray knowing that ultimately it's going to be God's will that is done. He is sovereign and we have to trust, just like Jesus did, that God knows best. This is so hard because we can't understand it...we don't understand God's will....so it's hard to carry on....but (as I was also reminded of today) we can't just stay in the place of not understanding...we have to carry on to see what is God's will for us. To see/do what is His will for our lives. We have to carry on, and that doesn't diminish what happened, but we can't stay in that place of confusion and be consumed by it. And so we continue on - on to do what comes next.

The other thing that I realized when reading the passage in Luke, is that it says that an angel appeared to Jesus and strengthened Him. This makes me think that, it's true, God didn't take away the cross from Jesus - it was part of His greater plan - the plan of our Salvation - but He did give Jesus strength and comfort to get through the awfulness of it all. It was truly awful...something Jesus didn't want to go through either. The physical pain, the emotional pain. Simply horrific. But He overcame it victoriously. He continued through...He never gave up.

So all this summed up to me says, we pray and we continue to pray just like Jesus did. Pray for our desires, yet pray that God's will be done...and if God's will is different from our desires, then He will provide us with what we need to continue on, as difficult as it might be, and as awful as the situation may seem to us. For our God is Sovereign, all knowing and is LOVE.