Because of the recent massacre in the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina, we are also keenly aware of the talk about the Confederate flag in the news this last week. The massacre was a horrendous and inexcusable act. So much sorrow. It hurts our hearts. We cannot understand how anyone could be filled with such rage to justify to themselves to do such an evil thing!

People are writing and speaking about the divisions between people. Everyone is looking for some REASON that it happened. Someplace to place BLAME.

This blog is not about divisions.
This blog is not about whether the Confederate flag should fly or not. This is about a single man who loved his Lord and tried to serve Him in a dark time in history. Yet this man found the LIGHT. He found the STRENGTH to carry on. This blog is meant to strengthen your faith in God. To share this one man’s written prayer (see below) to the God he turned to in a very scary time. We too, can turn there…to Almighty God to give comfort in these confusing and sometimes scary times.

God’s timing
How interesting that this poem would re-surface in my life at this time…just days before the massacre. How interesting that God would have used a prayer of a Confederate soldier to minister to my mother years ago, and then later also to me. And to so many others over the years. This Confederate soldier obviously knew intimately the Living God.

He didn’t choose WHERE he would be born.
And neither did we. God chose our PLACE of birth…and all the customs and attitudes that go with the “territory”. Only God can change our hearts to be like His. Here we read the prayer of this one man that allowed God to do just that!

People who had impact on my life.
I am still thinking of the recent death of Elisabeth Elliot (see last week’s blog) and the impact her life had on me. Actually, we never know who we impact. Sometimes in person, or maybe through something we have written. I am thinking afresh of the impact my own mother had on my faith walk. In my imagination, I wonder how many of the people in Charleston, South Carolina might possibly have been related to or influenced by the author that wrote the prayer poem I am about to share with you (below).

Searching for what my mother found.
My mother and father grew up in an era when people did not openly discuss “politics OR religion”. That was true even within their own families. So for years I searched for what my mother “had”. I wanted it, but I had no idea where to look for it. I didn’t know what to call it. I didn’t even know how to ask questions about it. We went to church as a family.

I am so grateful that the church of my youth made the kids memorize large portions of Scripture. That served me well, because the TRUTH was IN me, but God did not HAVE me because I had not known HOW to surrender to Him.

My mother’s prayer book.
When my mother was bed-fast in a hospital bed in our home, she would ask me to read to her from her prayer book. (Sadly, I don’t remember her asking me to read her the Bible. That doesn’t mean that she didn’t. But I don’t remember it. I do remember trying to read it for myself, but I started with Genesis in the KJV and quickly lost interest. No one told me I could start in the New Testament.)

I found what/Who I was looking for.
I don’t remember any discussions with my mother about God or about what I read to her, but in her own way, in an era when faith was not so openly discussed, by her example, she led me to what would later draw me to my own personal search for the Living Sovereign Almighty Creator God. And now I can gratefully say: I have found HIM and He is mine and I am His. Forever and ever!

Searching for the author of the poem.
In God’s amazing timing, I remembered this prayer poem that was written in my Mother’s own handwriting in her prayer book. I found the book and realized she had not written the author’s name, so I searched the internet for the source – the author of that powerful heartfelt prayer… How could it be? It was credited to an Unknown Confederate Soldier. I am grateful for his blessing to my Mother and later to me. May his prayer minister to you as well!

The Blessing of Unanswered Prayers
——unknown Confederate soldier

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for,
But everything that I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

Be blessed, dear ones!
Does this minister to you? I hope so!  I’d love to hear your thoughts about all this upheaval. How are you coping with it all?
Until next time…