Here is a selection of quotes from books I am currently reading:
“My brother’s passing away was the biggest surprise of my life, until it was quickly eclipsed by another surprise just a few weeks later: I was surprised by how much my faith in Jesus and my resolve to stay committed to him vanished. C. S. Lewis’s reflections after the death of his wife rang true for me: “God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn’t.… He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down.” I got punched in the face, and my resolve for the Lord disappeared. My strength dried up, and I was left with nothing. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” (Onwuchekwa, Prayer)
“Therefore, think ahead always, thoughtful preparation is best, Forethought and foresight forestall worry of mind.” Wilson, Beowulf
“In effect verse 15 [Psalm 106] says, ‘Take care what you pray – you might get it!’ – like the frightful island in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader where people always get what they dream! This is what happened in Numbers 11:33. Desire developed into the sin of covetousness – the ‘can’t-do-without-always-want-more’ mind-set which the New Testament calls idolatry (Ephesians 5:5) – and provoked divine wrath (compare James 1:14–15). The only sure way forward is to safeguard all our prayers with a fervent and heart-felt ‘May your will be done!’ People often say (and think), Do I have to say this every time? And behind that question lies a misunderstanding. Walk through a graveyard and you will find – is it specially on gravestones recording a particularly sad death? – ‘Thy will be done’. Is there a thought lying behind this that since God is in charge I can only accept life as he orders it, but if I were in charge I would arrange things better? I fear it sometimes is just like that. What an understandable but terribly mistaken reaction! Tell me: what makes heaven heaven? Why is it the utterly perfect place it is? Answer: because the will of God is perfectly done there. When we obey Jesus and pray, ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’, what are we asking? We are asking for heaven on earth, for the utterly perfect. And when we safeguard our prayers by adding ‘your will, not mine be done’, what are we doing? We are saying, Don’t give me what I am asking, give me what you know to be perfect. To say ‘your will, not mine’ does not bring our prayers down from the heights of what we would generously give ourselves; it lifts our prayers up to the heights of the best and most generous and totally perfect thing our heavenly Father has at his disposal. It removes all limitation from our praying, the limits of our wisdom, our feebleness in asking (Romans 8:26), our sheer boneheaded blindness. It lifts our prayers up to heaven and asks for heaven on earth.” (Motyer, Psalms by the Day)