TWO WOMEN PRAYING
There were two widow women, each with only a single son. The two young men both got involved in drugs and they both ended up in prison. The women were devout Christians and both had been in constant prayer for many years. When their two boys were sent to prison the one woman continued her dedication to prayer but the other woman turned to mourning and she eventually died.
Now both women were good Christians, but only one truly understood the role of prayer. The one woman was totally focused on seeing her son delivered from the curse of drugs and she would only believe God was hearing her prayers if she saw physical evidence. The other woman prayed for her son’s deliverance but more important she prayed for God’s will to be done in her life and thus her spirit was comforted.
The one woman had peace because she understood prayer and focused on the act of praying: not on what she wanted. She fully understood that God cannot make an individual change! After all, God cannot go against His own word; and He did give man the freedom to do as he wishes. Because of her spiritual maturity, the woman realized that her time of grief was also her time for drawing closer to God through prayer. The other woman, on the other hand, expected things to change in people and in the physical world just because she prayed for change. This woman could not see spiritual reality and thus she sank deeper into despair, until she finally died.