Psalm 18:34 “He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”
[Lord, you prepare your children on every level for what you know will come. We see this in how you put Joseph through training in Potiphar’s house, and then through serving others in prison, making him ready for being the Prime Minister of Egypt.
In the same way you are preparing us, equipping us, strengthening us through challenges and difficulties, getting us ready for the opportunities you are planning to give us.
I think of how you had me study Latin in high school and this prepared me for learning a difficult Asian language for ministry.
I think of how you had me working for years in the tire shop, learning how to manage both people and business, and how to deal with the public, preparing me for leading the field in the Middle East.
I think of how you had me marry late, giving me time to mature and giving me a fine German wife with a vision for missions and an understanding of other cultures, making transition to the Middle East easier and our work there more effective.
To you be glory for your wisdom, for your knowing what will come, for your faithfulness in preparing us, for your unfailing presence with us, for the fact we can praise you now for things we neither understand or like.
We can trust you in every difficulty by responding with thanksgiving and wholeheartedly embracing our present experiences, knowing that you will use them to prepare us for greater service for you in the future. Right now (2013), you are working in us through my wife’s deep depression to prepare us for some future ministry, unknown to us now.
It is a great comfort to know that nothing comes to us randomly, that every event in the lives of your children flows from your wisdom, plan, purpose and provision. You are in the process of finishing our faith, so we can live in the joy you have for us, enduring whatever cross you bring and despise whatever shame others try to put on us (Heb. 12:2).
Help us to live in the light of this truth, that you are training our hands for the battles to come, so we can effectively join you in your great plan to end history and bring in eternity while sweeping as many as possible into your Heavenly Kingdom.]