A "No" From God Can Be Better Than a "Yes"

      

      When you grow up in a Christian home, you are taught from a very young age to pray to God to fix things or provide things. When I was a child, my mom would pray with my brother and I at night that God would take away the night terrors we faced some nights. Sometimes I fell asleep peacefully with no need for a light on or a cracked door. Other nights though I would spend half the night starring at my closet imagining that the worst possible creatures would emerge from behind the doors or I would wake up from a terrible nightmare in the middle of the night and beg my parents to let me sleep with the lights on. I remember it vaguely, but I do remember that I never understood why I could pray just as much one night as the other, but end up terrified some nights but completely fine the other nights.

       

           We may be much older now, but the lesson is the same. Sometimes prayer requests aren’t answered immediately or the way you think they might be. Maybe right now you’re currently facing your own kind of monsters. Monsters that aren’t quite so much the creepy-looking beasts you imagined as a child behind your closet doors, but instead might be a financial stress, a family member's health, an unknown future that brings you anxiety or something else you may be personally struggling with. You may be praying a lot about it but the problem or stress may not go away. The trial may seem unending and discouraging. The unknown may still bring you anxiety.

    

       The other day as I was thinking about some monsters that I was facing, I came upon this line in Bernadette Keaggy’s  book, “A Deeper Shade of Grace” Keaggy stated: “Faith is not the belief that God will deliver what we want when we want it, but that he has gracious control of our lives and that he will be faithful to direct our paths and give us grace to walk through life’s unpredictable times.”

      

       We are told multiple times throughout the Bible that this life will not be easy and that both persecution and trial will come. (James 1: 1-3, Romans 8: 17, Matthew 5:45) However, we are also promised that God will never leave us and that we will be refined by God in the waiting, wondering, hurting and questioning times. (1Peter 1:6-7, Isaiah 41:10, John 14:27, Psalm 46:1-3 and so many more). We may not always understand why God allows some things to happen and doesn’t take them away. We may not understand why God hasn’t given us a clearer picture on other things, but we have to trust that even in those unpredictable or discouraging times, that He is still there, and He is refining us.

  So today or tomorrow, I’d encourage you to take some time to think about what monsters you are facing. Bring them to God. Be honest with God if you are frustrated by them or don’t understand them. Trusting God is not a said and done thing. It’s a daily thing.

Remember that He’s got everything in His hands, even though it can be hard to see at times.

Have a good week! 

-Amy