Spurgeon: May PM
* 05/19/PM
"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.