Had je ooit een vriend of kind of partner die iets zo erg wilden dat ze er bijna ziek van werden? De Young: "Maybe your husband is unhappy with his job and can only think of landing something else. Or maybe you have a friend who simply has to be married. Or maybe your child is despondent because he didn’t make the basketball team and probably never will."
Hoe bid je dan in die situaties? Terug De Young: "Would you ask God to provide a new job? Would you petition him for a spouse? Would you quietly ask for six more inches for your son? How would you pray?"
Vervolgens vermeldt hij Jeremiah Burroughs’ (1599-1646) antwoord:
Therefore for my part, if I should have a friend or brother or one who was as dear to me as my own soul, whom I saw discontented for the want of such a comfort, I would rather pray, “Lord, keep this thing from them, till you shall be pleased to humble their hearts for their discontent; let not them have the mercy till they come to be humbled for their discontent over the want of it, for if they have it before that time they will have it without any blessing” (The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, 159).
Met andere woorden: als mensen menen dat ze niet kunnen leven zonder iets bepaalds, dan zouden ze er nog even erg aan toe zijn als ze zouden krijgen waar ze zo sterk naar verlangen. De suggestie van Burroughs daarom:
There are many things which you desire as your lives, and think that you would be happy if you had them, yet when they come you do not find such happiness in then, but they prove to be the greatest crosses and afflictions that you ever had, and on this ground, because your hearts were immoderately set upon them before you had them.
Je kunt dus je hart teveel op dingen zetten. Wees daarom voorzichtig hoe je bidt. Zoals Tim Keller schrijft in zijn boek Counterfeit Gods:
"We kunnen ons niet voorstellen dat het krijgen van ons diepste hartsverlangen misschien wel het allerergste is dat ons kan overkomen"
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