I currently have my eldest brother staying with me for the weekend. We were talking earlier about his job as a Doctor. Occasionally, patients have walked into his surgery telling him what is wrong and demanding a specific treatment or medicine. Once in a while, he has passed the patient in question the prescription pad and asked them to simply write their own.
They look at him curiously before saying something along these lines:
“You are the doctor mate, not me!” Whereupon he replies, in his very disarming way, “Right then, shall we start again?”

Sometimes I am guilty of telling God what is wrong and prescribing my own medicine. I tell Him what I need and how He can help, then I get rather fed up when He does not do it as I ask.

Perhaps you too have done this recently with your heavenly Father? Maybe you have gone to Him and said, ‘How about we try this God? This would be brilliant!…” We have all done it haven’t we?!
Any good doctor will also take a personal history before prescribing anything. God does not need to do this. He knows our story better than we do. He remembers things we have long forgotten.

My brother not only prescribes the right medicine but he regularly uses medical books to check that what he is suggesting will work with the patients’ other medication. In the same way, God knows what else is going on in our lives and how things will work together for our good and His glory. He never gets that wrong.

Finally an experienced medic will not only know what will work, but the dosage required. God knows too how often we need prayer before we are healed, or how much we need to experience something before we finally learn it. How much is as important as how often.

Father is the best Doctor around. He is in the business of restoring souls not just bodies.