When
I was little, I used to foolishly hope that I’d be paralyzed or go blind. Or at
very least get glasses. I’d seen the movie Pollyanna, and when she
fell out of her bedroom window and was paralyzed, everyone in town
brought her presents and said lots of nice stuff about her. Fortunately, God doesn’t give us everything we ask for. He obviously
knew what I hadn't grasped yet: no amount of presents or having the
community rally together to praise me would be worth the loss of my
vision.
I don't pray for trials anymore. I have enough of them and nobody’s bringing me presents anyway. But, as I’ve prayed either for me or my loved ones to be delivered from various challenges, it has sometimes seemed that God doesn’t answer these prayers either. I have felt very afraid or hurt when I have prayed for something good and right, but it seems that God won’t do anything about my sincere requests.
Fixing our problems
immediately will, ironically, not give us what we truly need. The
removal of most trials is not worth more than the growth we find as we
live through these difficult experiences.
God is more concerned with who we are, who we are becoming, and who we will be than with what we presently want. Often the trials given to us are great teachers. As we work through them we can learn beautiful truths about God, ourselves, and others that change and help perfect us. These times of waiting are just disguised; they are actually beautiful blessings.
God also often answers our prayers a little bit at a time. This can prove confusing or disappointing if we’re expecting Him to lead us a certain direction and He ends up taking us another. It often takes time, but it certainly takes true trust to finally accept how and when the Lord fully answers our requests. Being able to accept His way can be a process, and that’s fine. It might even be the point of the trial. The faith we’re developing to keep trying and keep believing is one of the things we are being blessed to gain as we wait for His power to be shown in our lives.
It is confusing and difficult to feel that God could do something but won’t. I have cried as I have asked Him for help or relief. And while He hasn’t always given a definite answer, I have been blessed to feel that He is listening and that He loves me. I have felt that everything will work out. For some of us, though, it is difficult to feel God's love. Knowing that, our trials may be some of the tools God is using to help us come to trust that He does love us, that He does know us, and to help us learn that we are wonderful as we are.
God knows everything, including what we really need. What we really need and want is to become like Him so that we can enjoy perfect happiness. This is a long term goal that requires us to be changed. We need to learn, feel, and experience things. In order for us to change, we all must be taught through trials and opposition, disappointment and loss. But, these trials will provide opportunities for us to grow.
I know that God does answer our prayers. Always, even if the answer is no. Even if we can't see how or when or why, we can be given the quiet but real assurance through the Holy Ghost that He loves us,He has listened to our prayers, and that everything is and has been in His perfectly capable hands. He's got things under control. With that knowledge, we can feel peace. We can feel gratitude that we are beginning to learn more about His perfect wisdom and love.
Thank you. I'm so glad you've started blogging. It's a little strength for me each day :)
ReplyDeleteThese tender insights surly come from your experiences which give them sobering credibility. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteLove this. Reminds me of the "beautiful mess" that is discovering our lives and ourselves: thank you so much for sharing. This is a long quote, but it's on topic and amazing.
ReplyDelete“We are, not metaphorically but in very truth, a Divine work of art, something that God is making, and therefore something with which He will not be satisfied until it has a certain character. Here again we come up against what I have called the “intolerable compliment.” Over a sketch made idly to amuse a child, an artist may not take much trouble: he may be content to let it go even though it is not exactly as he meant it to be. But over the great picture of his life—the work which he loves, though in a different fashion, as intensely as a man loves a woman or a mother a child—he will take endless trouble—and would doubtless, thereby give endless trouble to the picture if it were sentient. One can imagine a sentient picture, after being rubbed and scraped and re-commenced for the tenth time, wishing that it were only a thumb-nail sketch whose making was over in a minute. In the same way, it is natural for us to wish that God had designed for us a less glorious and less arduous destiny; but then we are wishing not for more love but for less.”