by Howard Taylor
Can God_______? Does God_______? Will God_______?
Ever asked questions like these? Neither have I…. Thanks for reading!
But that wouldn’t be true would it?
In our darkest moments, in our deepest hurts, in our frailty as humans we have at one point asked ourselves something similar:
Can God forgive me?
Does God love me?
Can God save me?
Will God cure me?
Can God help me?
Can God………..? Fill in the blank.
Each of our lives are different, all of our circumstances being unique to our choices, and can be difficult. Nobody said life was going to be easy, and sometimes we forget that thinking that everything is supposed to be rainbows and sunshine all the time. We get an answer from God we don’t like and suddenly He went from being this awesome God to our enemy and the world is falling apart.
We sometimes ask these questions without thinking of who we are asking. We sometimes expect our answer without any regard to what God might have.
Our human nature tends to cloud our spiritual judgement.
Can God_______? Does God_______? Will God_______? Why yes, yes He can. He’s God!
We just don’t always agree with the answer we get.
The answers God gives us can seem great, complicated, frustrating, and sometimes disheartening, but they are the answer He has chosen for us.
To understand why God responds in the way he does requires us to view our relationship with Him from a different perspective; As a Father to son or daughter.
As parents we have more experience, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom than our children which equips us with a better capability to answer questions they bring to us (unless you are between the ages 13 – 18. You have been granted unlimited knowledge of life and everything else…….).
We have a better chance of giving good answers to our kids because we can see the “big picture” of what they are asking and how that would affect them.
As a Father, God can see more of the “big picture” in our lives than we can. He doesn’t just see what will happen if He answers us in one way, but how that answer will affect us for the rest of our lives AND how the other two answers would affect us. Because of His perspective, he is able to answer us according what HE sees best as a FATHER.
God has a very simple way of responding to what we ask for. Why make things more complicated than they have to be? Anything we ask him will be answered with one of the following:
Yes, No, or Not Yet
Lets take minute to look at these:
1.) Yes
This is the one everyone seems to like the most. Sometimes the answer is just yes. We’ve all heard stories or even experienced the immediate answering of prayer and it is AWESOME! You can’t do anything but thank God for being amazing and you feel like you’re on cloud nine. If Superman were to suddenly become unemployed, you’d step in and take the job because GOD just answered YOUR prayer.
It is exciting and definitely a great comfort knowing that your Father has taken notice of your problem and chosen to answer you with a yes. Your faith grows stronger and your need for help and answers will more than likely be directed towards Him the next time something arises.
The answer is not always yes though. Which brings us to the next one.
2.) No
This is probably everyone’s least favorite answer. This is the Debbie Downer that just ruins your day. You were hoping God would answer your prayer the way he did last time, but He saw things different and decided on a No this time.
It’s like when you ask your mom for hot dogs and mac n cheese for supper and for some reason brussel sprouts, corn, and sauteed tofu ended up on the plate. He decided not to give you what you asked for.
This is the answer that will test whether or not you trust God as a Father in the decision he has made. This is also the answer where we often fail. In our finite minds, we knew what was best for us and anything God chooses OTHER than that is wrong. What we THINK we need is not necessarily what we ACTUALLY need.
No is a hard answer to accept. Upon receiving this answer, we have to take a step back and ask ourselves if we are willing to trust Him.
Sometimes though, what we thought was NO was something else. Which leads us to the last answer.
3.) Not Yet
This is the one that is almost always confused with NO but usually has an amazing outcome.
We live in a microwave society where everything is instant. Information is readily available at our fingertips almost anywhere. We want it yesterday. Because of this, our patience with God reflects the conditioning we have received from all of this convenience; we have little to none. If I ask for it and didn’t have an answer by three days ago than the answer obliviously is NO.
Sometimes the answer is just not yet.
Maybe we’re not ready.
Maybe other things need to happen first so that we learn something.
Whatever the reason, God has chosen that the answer should be given at a later date. This answer will test your trust just as NO, but there is a yes in the light at the end of the tunnel.
This answer usually has the amazing outcome because it is often better than what we were originally asking for…….. something that only God could do.
He is your Father and knows your needs. It is our responsibility to trust WHO we are asking more than expect WHAT we are asking.
Trust Him whether the answer be Yes, No, or Not Yet!