Packer on Answered Prayer

"Our Father in heaven does not always answer his children's prayers in the form in which we offer them. Sometimes we ask for the wrong thing! It is God's prerogative to give good things, things we have need of, and if in our unwisdom we ask for things that do not come under these headings, God, like any good parent, reserves the right to say, 'No, not that; it wouldn't be good for you-but have this instead.' Good parents never simply ignore what their children are saying, nor simply disregard their feelings of need, and neither does God. But often he gives us what we should have asked for rather than what we actually requested. Paul asked the Lord Jesus graciously to remove his thorn in the flesh, and the Lord replied by graciously leaving it and strengthening Paul to live with it. The Lord knew best! To suggest that because Paul's prayer was answered this way it was not answered at all would be utterly wrong."-J.I. Packer