Praying during tragedy

I love this line from John E.'s book Walking with God, "hearing God requires surrender, giving all things over into his hands. Not abandoning your desires, but yielding them to God." He shares this thought with us while trying to deal with whether or not to put his dog to sleep. It is a heart wrenching decision and he knows what his heart wants but he is trying to be open to what God wants. He quickly realizes that it is time to let "Scout" go. Though his heart wants one thing he yields to where God is. So he lets scout go and doesn't pray for him to be healed. He heard from God to let him go.

I think so many of us have been in a situation where a loved one is suffering or possibly on their death bed. Our hearts so much want to pray for a miracle but is that always the right thing? Is it possible that God is doing something different, and if we don't pray for a miracle every time, does this mean that we lack faith? What a great question...Our faith is based on God's promises and God does not always deliver when we pray to save or rescue our loved ones. Therefor what would it look like to ask God how we should be praying for these folk? This means yielding our desires for them to what God is doing. Wow this is a fresh concept for me and a challenging one at that. How do you feel about this? Is there ever a time where we shouldn't pray for someone to get well or recover? I would dare say that I have not often asked God's opinion on how I should pray for someone...I have just gone ahead and prayed for them. I am going to think on this one and try this on in the future when praying for someone to get better. I hope this challenges you as well. I hope God continues to do a new work in your heart as he is doing in mine.
Walking Together,
Your Dreaming Pastor