When they were younger, my kids
eventually learned an important lesson- never ask mom anything that started
with the word ‘can’ otherwise she’d usually answer “I don’t know. Are you able
to ____?” So it was on occasion that
the word ‘may’ became a frustrating word.
“I’m hungry, may I have candy? (No) May I have ice cream? (No) May I
have a freezee? (No) May I have chips, or cheesies? (No)…” Now, of course they had all
these foods occasionally, but every time they asked would have done harm to
their young bodies. You and I know that
nutritiously deficient foods are to be eaten sparingly if you want your
children to remain healthy through their lives.
But we all have that little kid inside
of us wanting the good things in life just because they taste, feel, look,
smell, and sound good or because they make us look or feel good. God, on the other hand, is like the parent
who is out for His child’s best interest- whether they want it or not. You see, He cares very much about our health-
all of it, but I’d guess our spiritual health more than the rest. He is fully aware that the health of our
spirit is what will determine our eternal future. Our bodies can be hurting, and our minds
failing, but if our spirit is new in Him, then our future is a healthy one.
And this is the confidence that
we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of him. 1Jh. 5:14 ,15
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient
times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure: Is. 46:10
Does this mean that when I asked God to
give us a miracle so we could conceive that it was not in His will and that Him
not doing it was in my best interest? It
sure does. For whatever reason, God did
not want me to conceive and I can come up with many possible reasons, but the
truth is I probably won’t know until I get to heaven. Yet, we were blessed to adopt, and there are
many couples who don’t have that
prayer answered the way they wanted. I
think the two most difficult things to understand is when God doesn’t heal
someone we love and most especially when that person is our spouse or
child. How could that not be God’s will-
after all He loves us and we need this prayer answered the way we want.
The truth is we don’t know all the past,
present and future, but God does; He sees it all (Job 28:24). We don’t know why He saves one life but
allows another to leave this existence.
What we do know is He is fully trustworthy (Ps. 71:5) and cares about us
enough to send Jesus to die for us paying our penalty for our sin so that we
can be reconciled to Him (Rom. 5:8-11).
We do know He allows things in our lives for our good (Rom. 8:28 ).
(Tough one to swallow sometimes…)
So, what do we do about the prayers we
say? There are many things the Bible
speaks on that we can pray for knowing they are God’s will for us. Sometimes He tells us what His will is- for
us to pray about it. Other times when we
don’t know, we should just pray for what we want. No matter how we pray, we should consider
adding in ‘if it be your will’, and then actually try to be okay with whatever
He decides. Being in His will, though
sometimes painful, is still the most blessed place to be. I know from experience, and I type here today
in a place of peace and joy despite all the prayers in my life that were never
answered the way I wanted.
God is good (Ps. 100:5). We just need to trust in that.
I need to trust in that more!