「我們本不曉得當怎樣禱告，只是那靈親自用說不出來的歎息，為我們代求。」－羅馬書8:26
- 當我們求神給我們忍耐時，祂卻常讓我們遇到最難纏，最麻煩的人；這乃是因為「患難生忍耐」（羅馬書5:3）。
- 當我們尋求順服，神常給我們更多的苦難，為了叫我們「因所受的苦難學了順從」（希伯來書5:8）。
- 而我們求無私的時候，神就給我們機會犧牲奉獻，為弟兄捨命。
- 我們求力量和謙卑時，神卻容讓撒但的使者苦害我們，直到我們在塵埃中俯伏，哀求祂拯救。
- 若我們「求主增加我們的信心」（路加福音17:5），我們的錢財往往不翼而飛，兒女們也會無故生了大病，或許我們會雇到冒失、浪費、隨便、懶惰的僕人；總之，種種的試煉都會紛紛不請自來，逼得我們不得不操練憑著信心生活。
- 我們若求更多的愛，神就讓我們總是遇到不可愛的人，並且圍繞著我們說一些刺激、傷害的言語。這是因為「愛是恆久忍耐，又有恩慈，愛是...不求自己的益處，不輕易發怒，...凡事包容、凡事相信、凡事盼望、凡事忍耐、愛是永不敗落」（哥林多前書13:4-8）。
- 我們若尋求效法基督，神所給的答案乃是：「你在苦難的爐中，我試煉你。」（以賽亞書48:10）「你的心能忍受麼？你的手有力量麼？」（以西結書22:14）「我將要喝的杯，你們能喝麼？」（馬太福音20:22）
如此我們就能從高天俯瞰這些臨到我們的環境，知道這一切都是出自於天父最美的安排。－選
"We know not what we should pray for as we ought" (Rom. 8:26).Much that perplexes us in our Christian experience is but the answer to our prayers. We pray for patience, and our Father sends those who tax us to the utmost; for "tribulation worketh patience."
We pray for submission, and God sends sufferings; for "we learn obedience by the things we suffer."
We pray for unselfishness, and God gives us opportunities to sacrifice ourselves by thinking on the things of others, and by laying down our lives for the brethren.
We pray for strength and humility, and some messenger of Satan torments us until we lie in the dust crying for its removal.
We pray, "Lord, increase our faith," and money takes wings; or the children are alarmingly ill; or a servant comes who is careless, extravagant, untidy or slow, or some hitherto unknown trial calls for an increase of faith along a line where we have not needed to exercise much faith before.
We pray for the Lamb-life, and are given a portion of lowly service, or we are injured and must seek no redress; for "he was led as a lamb to the slaughter and?opened not his mouth."
We pray for gentleness, and there comes a perfect storm of temptation to harshness and irritability. We pray for quietness, and every nerve is strung to the utmost tension, so that looking to Him we may learn that when He giveth quietness, no one can make trouble.
We pray for love, and God sends peculiar suffering and puts us with apparently unlovely people, and lets them say things which rasp the nerves and lacerate the heart; for love suffereth long and is kind, love is not impolite, love is not provoked. LOVE BEARETH ALL THINGS, believeth, hopeth and endureth, love never faileth. We pray for likeness to Jesus, and the answer is, "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." "Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong?" "Are ye able?"
The way to peace and victory is to accept every circumstance, every trial, straight from the hand of a loving Father; and to live up in the heavenly places, above the clouds, in the very presence of the Throne, and to look down from the Glory upon our environment as lovingly and divinely appointed. --Selected
