Recently an acquaintance with a bothersome back problem was lamenting to me that God had not healed her.\u00a0 She wondered why.\u00a0 Then she named off those in the Bible God had healed and a few others she knew first hand.\u00a0 After all, she was a Christian who prayed for others.\u00a0 Why had God not taken away her pain after she had consistently beseeched him to do so?<\/p>\n
I empathized with her predicament, but gently pointed out that perhaps God did not exist to take away our pain.\u00a0 Healing is something God performs for his glory not our comfort.\u00a0 This was a totally foreign concept for her so she said, \u201cI\u2019ll have to think about that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Indeed God is capable of easing our pain, but he doesn\u2019t always touch us with a magic wand where it hurts to make it better \u2013 like kissing a \u201cboo-boo.\u201d\u00a0 Although, he might sprinkle a little fairy dust of stamina, endurance, encouragement, perseverance or peace of mind to help us make it through the hard times.<\/p>\n
Living in a \u201cquick-fix\u201d society, we would all prefer for God to instantly, magically fix our circumstances.\u00a0 But God is not always in the \u201cquick-fix\u201d game.\u00a0 Sometimes he offers pieces of solutions \u2013 bit by bit.\u00a0 Maybe he will plant a seed coming from something you read, a phrase, the lyrics to a song you\u2019re listening to, something someone says off handedly and it starts you on the road to healing.\u00a0\u00a0 You discover that perhaps God isn\u2019t as concerned about your circumstances as your reaction to them or what you can learn from them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
People make an error in prayer thinking God is our big sugar daddy in the sky waiting to grant our every request. True he is omnipotent and has the power to give us everything we want, but he isn\u2019t our personal Santa Claus anxious to fulfill everything on our wish list – even if we have been nice instead of naughty.\u00a0 That would not be good for us and God is interested only in our good.\u00a0 I often think of the following poem\u2026<\/p>\n
I asked for strength,
\nAnd God gave me difficulties to make me strong;<\/p>\n
I asked for wisdom,
\nAnd God gave me problems to learn to solve;<\/p>\n
I asked for prosperity,
\nAnd God gave me brain and brawn to work;<\/p>\n
I asked for courage,
\nAnd God gave me dangers to overcome;<\/p>\n
I asked for patience.
\nGod placed me in situations where I was forced to wait.<\/p>\n
I asked for love,
\nAnd God gave me people to help;<\/p>\n
I asked for favors,
\nAnd God gave me opportunities.<\/p>\n
I received nothing I wanted.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I received everything I needed.<\/p>\n
God always answers our prayers!\u00a0 It may not always be the answer we want, but it will be the one we need.\u00a0 We tend to blur our needs and our wants when we pray, we can be thankful that God knows the difference.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we trust him for the right answer!\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently an acquaintance with a bothersome back problem was lamenting to me that God had not healed her.\u00a0 She wondered why.\u00a0 Then she named off those in the Bible God had healed and a few others she knew first hand.\u00a0 … Continue reading