May 19, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"And he requested for himself that he might die." — 1 Kings 19:4 · KJV

It was a remarkable thing that this man, of all men, should pray such a prayer. Elijah was never to die at all; God had appointed him an infinitely better lot, to be carried to heaven in a chariot of fire and taken away without seeing death. Yet he prayed, "Let me die, I am no better than my fathers." Here is a memorable proof that God does not always answer prayer in the form we ask, though He always answers it in effect. He gave Elijah something better than what he requested, and in that way truly heard and answered him. It was strange that the lion-hearted prophet should be so depressed by a queen's threat that he asked to die, and it was wonderfully kind of our heavenly Father that He did not take His discouraged servant at his word. There is a limit to the doctrine of the prayer of faith. We are not to expect that God will give us everything we happen to ask for. We know that sometimes we ask and do not receive, because we ask wrongly. If we ask for something that was never promised, if we run counter to the spirit the Lord wants to cultivate in us, if we ask contrary to His will or to the decrees of His providence, if we ask merely for our own comfort with no eye to His glory, then we must not expect to receive. Yet when we ask in faith, without doubting, if we do not receive the precise thing we asked for, we will receive an equivalent, and more than an equivalent, in its place. As someone has said, if the Lord does not pay in silver, He will pay in gold; and if He does not pay in gold, He will pay in diamonds. If He does not give you exactly what you asked for, He will give you what fully matches it, something you will be overjoyed to receive instead. So be much in prayer, dear reader; make this evening a season of earnest intercession, but take care what you ask for.