Am I the only one guilty of asking God to bless my food to nourish my body even when I know it is not the most nourishing food I could be eating? Can God make that loaded pizza or super sweet treat nourishing? Of course He can, but is it His will to do so? My point is this; how much easier it is to take my wishes, hopes and plans to God for His blessing and approval than it is to ask Him what He knows is best for me.
Some of God’s greatest blessings in my life have been the result of unanswered prayer. Let me clarify that statement. They resulted from what “seemed like” unanswered prayers. After all of these years, I know God answers every prayer I bring to Him. The answer is always yes, not yet or no; but I am so busy anticipating the yes that I often miss, or ignore, those other answers.
I want to share with you a very personal illustration. My parents had to move from Indiana to Missouri the summer before my junior year of high school. That first year in a new school I noticed a beautiful red haired girl in my class. I felt she was out of my league, like Charlie Brown in the Peanuts comic strip. I never even got the courage to talk to her, but I prayed that someday we would get to know each other.
The summer before my senior year I met Carol on a blind date. She had just graduated from another high school in the area and I began to fall for that older woman with the Mona Lisa smile. Her senior year in a strange school she didn’t attend the prom, so I invited her to my senior prom. By then we had found so much in common, including our faith in Jesus Christ.
The senior trip was to Washington D.C. that year and we took a chartered bus all the way from Missouri to the nation’s capital. I no sooner got seated on the bus than that beautiful red haired young lady named Mary grabbed the seat next to me. She snuggled up close to me and slept with her head on my shoulder on our overnight bus ride. We didn’t talk much, but she was by my side most of the trip. During a moonlight cruise on the Potomac River, we kissed. It should have been a dream come true – an answer to my prayer. But the moment we kissed, all I could think about was Carol and how guilty and uncomfortable I felt. I don’t know exactly what I said, but I think I mentioned Carol and Mary suddenly disappeared and I never saw her again.
God held off answering my prayer about Mary, because He had chosen Carol for my wife. He then permitted the encounter on the trip later to show me just how much Carol meant to me and was truly the one I wanted to spend my life with. We need to be aware when God answers our prayer with not now or no. Like the loving Father He is, there is always a very good reason. It is because we are not ready for it yet, or He has something better planned for us. It would be even better if we could pray as Jesus did in the garden, “I want your will to be done and not mine.” (Mark 14:36)