You don’t really know what lurks in the mind of another. That is why serial killers go undiscovered for years. If we could read minds it would prevent many marriages that end in divorce. Being created in God’s image suggests that one cannot read God’s thoughts either. I worry about martyrs. What difference should it make to ISIS what I think? I can say one thing and mean another! The whole time I am thinking someone is an idiot yet I have a warm smile on my face. Ick! Yet we all have secrets and that is how we are designed. Deliverance is God’s will but that does not mean saving us from every earthly condition but for eternity. How wonderful to be free from desperate times, when our survival instinct kicks in but, in a broken world that is not the case. We should believe in miracles but depend on God. It makes prayer hard when we want that thing to happen that does not happen. Each one could list the elation and disappointments in bringing people and situations to the Lord in prayer. The biblical accounts can help. Think of King David in the cave, Job covered with sores, John the Baptist beheaded, Daniel in the lion’s den, the three in the fiery furnace, the Christian being killed today for what they think about Jesus. Each predicament is hard to measure an outcome. You don’t really know.
