What do you do when you know God can, but He doesn’t?
As a Christian, I believe in a God that can do the impossible. I believe in a God who works miracles, even today. I believe this because I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’ve seen impossible situations completely turned around by a supernatural God. I also believe this because God’s Word-- the Bible-- shows me that He has before and tells me He’ll do it again.
But just because God can do the impossible, just because He can heal, just because He can restore marriages, just because He can bless your finances... Just because He can do all these things, it doesn’t mean He always will. To get real for a minute, this is a super difficult and hard reality. I’ve seen people lose jobs, lose loved ones, have miscarriages and the list of tragedies I’ve walked with people through is longer than I’d like to admit. When God doesn’t do what we hoped, it feels like we’re forced to choose between two bad options… either we give up on the idea that God can work miracles in our lives, or we get bitter because He didn’t do a miracle for us. I’ve seen people blame themselves for a “lack of faith” or even blame God for not caring. I think both of these options are bad options and I want to spend the rest of this blog helping you navigate what you can do when you believe in a God who can do the impossible, but He hasn’t yet or didn’t in your situation.
#1 God is good and His plans for your life are good.
There was a season in my life where I really struggled to believe that phrase above. I left a job at a church that I loved. A job that I felt was connected to my calling and my destiny. In that season, our finances dried up and I didn’t know how I would pay our bills (even though I had three jobs). My daughter was facing some health challenges that were heartbreaking. To top it all off, my wife was on the verge of a mental breakdown and I was doing everything I could to wake up and not hate life. It was hard. I mean seriously hard. I’m not one to cry very often and I usually handle stress really well. But this season was kicking our butts. I cried. A lot. So many times during these dark months (about 18 months to be exact) I wondered if God cared. It felt like like all hell was breaking loose against our family and God was taking a nap. I had serious doubts that things would ever change. I believed God could change all of it in a moment… but I couldn’t understand why He didn’t. During that season, I prayed. I fasted. I cried. I spoke in faith. I literally did everything I knew to do, but nothing changed. Now we’re years past that season, I can look back and see it differently. I have a job I love. My daughter’s health is great! My wife isn’t stressed, and our finances are better than they have ever been. But what got me through that season was this truth,
“God is good. His plan for my life is better than my plan for my life.”
In the darkest times of that season, I kept coming back to this truth. It was like an anchor that I hung all my faith and hope on. It was about the only thing that helped to calm my anxiety and alleviate my depression. I couldn’t understand the “why” in this season. But I learned to trust the Who. God was good, and He had a good plan.
#2 There is a real devil, who really wants to destroy your life.
1 Peter 5:18 ESV Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
We see in this passage that we have an enemy who is trying to ruin our lives and devour our destinies. We’re in the middle of a spiritual battle. Satan hates us, hates God, and is at work in our lives to hurt us in any way that he can. Now, not everything negative that happens in our lives is a work of Satan, but some of it definitely is. When we face hard times, we have to understand some fights are spiritual and must be fought spiritually. Maybe the situation you’re facing needs to be taken to prayer and handled spiritually?
#3 Keep eternity in mind. A loss today is not a loss forever.
I believe in eternity. For those of us who have been saved by Jesus, we will be welcomed into heaven for eternity. As a Jesus follower, this gives me great hope and helps my perspective. When I’m facing difficult situations and wondering why God isn’t doing this or that, I pause and think of eternity. It’s easy to get short-sighted and be so focused on the here and now that we forget there is an eternity ahead of us. I have to ask myself, in light of eternity, is this situation as bad as I think? If I line up my disappointments against eternity and the joy I’ll have there, it helps me see that what I’m frustrated about isn’t as dire as I’m making it. The reality of eternity is especially helpful in the midst of tragic losses; we must not forget it.
1 Thessalonians 4:13, offers some encouragement “And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.” As a Christian, we handle loss differently. It doesn’t mean we don’t grieve when we lose someone we love, but it does mean if they were a follower of Jesus, a loss is only temporary. It’s not the end and we’ll get to spend hundreds of years making up the lost time!
I want to leave you with this passage. Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” The thing you’re facing isn’t the end of your story. God can use it. God can redeem it. God can help you through it. And when you’re on the other side of it you’ll see this verse come to pass! May God redeem your story and make beauty out of your ashes!