Evening, May 19

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"And he requested for himself that he might die."

  1 Kings 19:4

   It was a remarkable thing that the man who was never to die, for whom
   God had ordained an infinitely better lot, the man who should be
   carried to heaven in a chariot of fire, and be translated, that he
   should not see death--should thus pray, "Let me die, I am no better
   than my fathers." We have here a memorable proof that God does not
   always answer prayer in kind, though he always does in effect. He gave
   Elias something better than that which he asked for, and thus really
   heard and answered him. Strange was it that the lion-hearted Elijah
   should be so depressed by Jezebel's threat as to ask to die, and
   blessedly kind was it on the part of our heavenly Father that he did
   not take his desponding servant at his word. There is a limit to the
   doctrine of the prayer of faith. We are not to expect that God will
   give us everything we choose to ask for. We know that we sometimes ask,
   and do not receive, because we ask amiss. If we ask for that which is
   not promised--if we run counter to the spirit which the Lord would have
   us cultivate--if we ask contrary to his will, or to the decrees of his
   providence--if we ask merely for the gratification of our own ease, and
   without an eye to his glory, we must not expect that we shall receive.
   Yet, when we ask in faith, nothing doubting, if we receive not the
   precise thing asked for, we shall receive an equivalent, and more than
   an equivalent, for it. As one remarks, "If the Lord does not pay in
   silver, he will in gold; and if he does not pay in gold, he will in
   diamonds." If he does not give you precisely what you ask for, he will
   give you that which is tantamount to it, and that which you will
   greatly rejoice to receive in lieu thereof. Be then, dear reader, much
   in prayer, and make this evening a season of earnest intercession, but
   take heed what you ask.