I believe that when we pray, those prayers get answered. The difficulty comes sometimes in what form those answers take. Sometimes it's yes. Sometimes it's no. Sometimes it's not right now. I think the part where I get confused, is paying attention to when the answer is no. Sometimes I find myself structuring my prayers so that I really am only on the lookout for yes answers.
"Dear God, can you please help with this...Dear God, can you please give me this...Dear God, will you make this happen..." And so when I see these things that I've prayed earnestly about not happening, I figure God must be taking his sweet time and just hasn't gotten around to them yet. So I try to be patient and send some friendly reminders. Sometimes it takes quite some time for me to realize that He did answer me. The answer was no.
NO can be quite a hard pill to swallow. It just doesn't feel right. In reality, what it is is a reminder that we just don't always know enough to know what's best for us. In my very narrow-minded, tunneled-visioned view of life, I think I'm pretty adept at knowing what would be best for me, and I'd really like God to be onboard with that and get his blessings on my decisions. Totally backwards, I know. Luckily, God has caught on to me and doesn't let it roll that way. He tells me no over and over again, and when I still refuse to listen, he gives me the stiff arm when I try to do it anyway.
Hindsight is God's foresight. There are times, like today, when I finally get why I was having such a hard time getting God to answer my prayer. I wasn't paying attention to the answer He gave me. And now no makes total sense. I'm grateful for answered prayer.
**Obviously, this is not my normal type of blog post. It's more of a journal of sorts, but I don't actually have a journal so I wrote it down here instead.
9 comments:
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i love you. and all your blog posts.
I'm not sure if you listen to country music or not, but Brad Paisley has an AMAZING song about this called "No". Check it out! Just stumbled across your blog...
I imagine your request is for something fairly trivial given that you have enough to eat, access to clean water and a roof over your head. To top it all off you don't even have to work for a living!
Can you explain to me why God ignores the prayers of a young woman in Africa asking for a few grains of rice or a small bag of flour so that she can feed her children?
I have no time for the God who ignors real need.
I have no time for God period.
Just asking.....
@ daniel... if you're going to put a question mark, you might want to include a question.
@ jasmine... love you fat head.
@ taryn... hi!! i'm going to youtube that song right now!
@ anonymous... you are definitely welcome to have your own opinions and thoughts about God and his existence, just not sure why you'd feel the need to be so condescending to me, especially since i'm fairly sure i don't know you personally. and i believe God has provided plenty of food and resources on this earth for all people, it's humanity that has fallen short in that department.
I know this isn't your usual post and all, but i loved it. In all sincerity, there has been such a spiritual growth in your life in the past two years and I'm honored to be a witness to it.
When I see Pastor Miles, I'm going to tell him that I think he's the best. Because if he can help mold your stubborn mind, he can probably turn water into wine, too! ;)
I'm going thru this right now accept I don't think I'm accepting my "no" as well as you. This "no" may be the end of me & God as I've known it. Sadly but honestly how I feel.
[right now] *except
understand that the scope of what we see and the scope of what God sees, is vastly different. it doesn't always make sense, and that is where faith comes in...believing that it's going to be ok.
you can email me if you want! missbri@gmail.com
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