The lady spoke of the rift that was robbing her family. She had exhausted her efforts to get them to love and come together. Her heart was broken because she suffered loneliness and lost joy. She said, “All I can do is pray and wish.” “Pray and wish,” those were the words of a longing heart.

A prayer and a wish are two different things, but there are some prayers without answers because someone’s cooperation is required, and they choose not to cooperate. Even then God still gives us the peaceful solace of wishing for them.

There are people whom I love and pray for because they are living broken lives. For some, God has made it clear that the solution is there if they will only let go of the pain and ill will; and then, take His hand and trust that His ways are best. Some say “no,” others say “not yet,” and a few say “never!” Do we know how that grieves the Lord? “How often I would have gathered you about me, but you would not.”

BY His Holy Spirit, God gives us power to forgive, reconcile, love one another, and live together in harmony. We often “pray and wish” for others that they could experience those things, yet they remain in a life of unhappiness because someone refuses the way of God.

It is said that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. God has given us a living fountain of the water of love, and He leads us to it in many ways; we choose to drink or thirst.

“I wish for you my friend
This happiness that I’ve found
You can depend on Him
It matters not where you’re bound
I’ll shout it from the mountain top
I want my world to know
The Lord of love has come to me
I want to pass it on.”