YE KNOW NOT WHAT YE ASK.

 

JULY 18.
 
Ye know not what ye ask.
Matthew 20:22

 
MANY things appear to be good which are not really so; and 

many things are good in themselves which are not good for us.
 
The Saviour’s disciples often asked a miss,
  and they ask for what would not really do them good;
  and when they do so, he mercifully denies them.
 
It may often be said to us, “Ye know not what ye ask.”
 
We ask perhaps for deeper satisfaction, and
  in doing so we asked for trials,
  losses, crosses, and temptations.
 
We ask to be weaned from the world, and
  in doing so we ask for troubles,
  difficulties, and perhaps bodily afflictions.
 
We ask for stronger faith, hope, and patience, and
  in doing so doing we ask for clearer and
  more painful discoveries of the corruption of the heart,
  and more violent assaults from Satan
  then we have ever experienced.
 
It is very probable that we shall see by and by,
  that our severest trials and our bitterest sorrows,
  were just answers to our prayers.
 
We fix upon some object,
  we set our hearts upon it,
  we pray earnestly that we may possess it,
  but do not think the painful process through
  which we must pass to arrive at it.
 

Blindly we ask for pain and loss,

A deeper cup, a heavier cross,

And still we all thy grace employ;

But humbly waiting to receive,

Manner and time to thee we leave,

Thy will be done, we ask no more.

 
James Smith 1849