Here is prayer number nine of Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To and an excerpt from the chapter, God, Bring Good Out of This Bad Situation:

“God, please bring some good out of this situation” is one of the most powerful prayers in the universe–and one that God always says yes to–but it’s also one of the toughest to pray. The reason is that when we’re right in the midst of suffering, it’s very hard to calmly consider all the wonderful things that might lie in store for us in the future. After all, the future is always so unclear and hazy, while the pain we’re experiencing in the present moment is so sharp and unmistakable. That’s why cliches like “look at the bright side” and “every cloud has a silver lining” can be off-putting and even slightly nauseating when we hear them. And yet expressions like these don’t usually become cliches unless there is some truth to them. Somewhere along the line, human beings noticed that bad things can give way to good things or even lead to them. In fact, if it weren’t for the bad experiences–the failures, the humiliations, the tragedies–sometimes the very best experiences in our lives would never have occurred.

In this chapter, the author also goes on to describe a very poignant story about something Theodore Roosevelt endured when he was only twenty-six years old.

Although my own experience of a failed marriage after twenty-one years, was not as tragic as this former president’s, it was a time in my life where happiness appeared to be the last thing in store for my future. However, ten years later, I realized an unexpected happiness in the form of owning a beautiful gift shop, which would never have been possible in my married life. Although I never prayed the above prayer when my marriage failed, I remember thinking, “What good can possibly come of this failure?” God knew, and in his own way, answered that question as he would a prayer.

Tomorrow: Why Am I Here, Anyway? God, Lead Me to My Destiny