This gets into a very fascinating part of prayer. But, to address that issue first, yes, God does
sometimes. Other times, God does not.
Examples that immediately come to mind are when the sick are healed miraculously. We wouldn’t have canonisations if God doesn’t heal the suffering.
One might think, however, that it is imperfect to pray for the relief of suffering and that it’s more saintly to just pray for the strength to endure it. But, we do have examples of when saints themselves were healed of illnesses. Saint Gemma Galgani, for example, was healed after having visions of Saint Gabriel Possenti who had already been dead for some time. So, even holy people can ask for relief from suffering.
God *wants *us to ask for His help. If someone is suffering, God wants to be called upon. If you’re unfamiliar with the devotions of the Divine Mercy, they were visions that a nun named Faustina Kowalska had back in the early part of the twentieth century. She had visions of Jesus and made a few prophecies which came true, suggesting that she really was a holy woman. After her death, people prayed to her and were healed of illnesses, two cases of which led to her being declared a saint.
Anyway, in Faustina’s diary where she writes of her conversations with Jesus, Jesus says explicitly how God wants us to ask for His help. So, if one were suffering, God would want you to pray to Him for aid. The aid may not necessarily be in ending the suffering; it might just be strength to endure through it.
In the specific example that you gave, by all means, the wife should pray for the suffering to stop. But as others noted here, the answer to those prayers could be “no,” in which case she’d best ask God for strength and patience. God would prefer to give strength rather than a reprieve in those cases because, for whatever reason, it would work out better in the long run.
The fascinating part of prayer that I mentioned above is figuring out whether or not God will grant what you want. Someone could say easily that you could just pray for it; if God doesn’t give it to you, then you won’t get it. But the question is, how do you know when you have prayed enough? I was recently reading about miraculous happenings with regard to saints, and I read of one example (I don’t remember the specifics right now, sorry) where someone prayed to a saint and had to do many novenas to get what he wanted. How did that person know to pray that much instead of giving up? That’s a difficult thing each person has to figure out on his or her own, as each case approaches.
That being said, this doesn’t mean that the wife in such a case should just take everything sitting down. If her husband is beating her, in a way, perhaps God already gave her what she needs to make the suffering stop. God gave her a voice; she can tell her husband to stop it. God gave her fingers; she can dial 911. God doesn’t only work in supernatural ways.
I think that you can ask God to take away your sufferings and He will. I’ll give the example that a woman is getting beaten by her husband. I think she has EVERY right to ask God to relieve her suffering, whether she prays for a change of heart for her attacker or finds a way out. I see this as an answer to prayer, along with God relieving your suffering. I have had conversations with people who say that God will not take away your suffering, and they give examples of martyrs. I see their very valid point that they are dying for Christ and its is righteous suffering (I don’t know if this is the correct way to say it, but but I hope you can understand what I am trying to say). So does that mean that we should never ask for relief of our suffering? I cannot reconcile these two ideas, so if someone could help me out I would sure appreciate it.
Any sincere responses would be appreciated :yup:
…Deo Graitus!