Psalm 131:3
Can we have a conversation about unanswered prayer? Is there anything harder to understand than those times when we've poured out our heart before God, and what we really thought we needed and certainly knew we wanted never came about. There have been times in my life when God did the exact opposite of everything I'd hoped for. It's just crushing.
Perhaps you have had a similar experience. I'm not sure you can dabble in prayer for any amount of time and not run aground on this one painful truth - God does not bow His will to ours.
God does not bow His will to ours.
That will either settle on your spirit in submission and trust or it will tick you off. Either way God does not bow His will to ours.
Sometimes He doesn't.
Quite honestly, I could never fully explain why God does or doesn't do anything. If I could, I would be God.
I can tell you, however, that there is nothing more painfully unsettling to your soul than a prayer that seems unanswered or answered in a way opposed to how we had hoped. It's the exact opposite of calming and quieting to our souls. It's uprooting of our faith. It's destructive to our spirit. It's devastating to our emotions. IF, and I repeat IF, our hope is in the Lord just for now.
If all we trust God for is what we can see and feel and experience in the present time, we will likely find our faith easy to abandon. What's the use, right? What good is faith if nothing changes by our believing? What difference does it make to pray if God does only what He wants? I have been there. I stayed there for a very long time. It's miserable.
If you're there, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for the pain you're experiencing and the loss of the ability to believe that weighs in the balance. But before you turn and walk away from the God Who loves you more than anyone ever has or ever will, can I ask you to consider one thing? Please consider a both/and faith.
The Psalmist instructed Israel in this way - to put her hope in the Lord both now and forevermore. If all our hope is in Him for just what we need right now, we could be disappointed. We could even be devastated. But if we have a both/and faith, a hope in God both now and forevermore, He cannot fail, and we can never be disappointed.
There is more to your story than the present pain or loss. There is so much more to this life than what we can see, and exponentially more at stake. There is eternity and in eternity, He makes all things new and sets everything right. This life is a puff of steam and our agony or trials in their enormity are "light and momentary." That's not meant to minimize what we go through. It's meant to put into perspective the scale of such things in light of eternity.
I hope and pray you can hear the compassion in these words. You may be disappointed and broken for a season, but don't lose eternity over anything of this world. Put your hope in God both now and forevermore. Trust Him now for what you need and ask - by all means ask. He might answer in the way you pray He would. But in those instances when now isn't what you'd hoped for or what you asked for in prayer, put your hope in Him forevermore. That kind of hope, the both/and of now and forevermore, does not disappoint.
Let your soul be calmed and quieted by this today... God knows what He's doing with you both now and forevermore. You can trust Him.