Asking for a Better Solution

The rest of the passage was equally helpful. “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” At a time in my life when I was struggling with worry, I decided that Paul must have meant that I could ask God for a better solution to the problem I was facing. Eve could ask God for a better solution just like I did, as have countless other believers.

I told Eve that I believed I could ask God for a better answer to my problem because Jesus did the same thing in the garden of Gethsemane. “And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will'” (Matt. 26: 59).

Jesus asked for a better solution but then told his Father that he would drink the cup God had for him. Eve knew she could ask God for a better solution. At the same time, she knew God could decide that the best solution was for her to continue in the problem. She was willing to accept this as Jesus did. If nothing could change, she would be thankful for the grace God would give her to go through it.

(Charles Hodges, Good Mood Bad Mood, p. 148)