Prayer Bundles

God answers prayers but He often interprets our prayers in strange ways. I say strange because His answers or resolutions are sometimes in ways that we wouldn't expect or recognize. Most times it is not what I expected at all. Like an unexpected package that arrives "out-of-the-blue". Have you ever had an answer to a prayer doesn't look like what you prayed for?

When I pray for patience, God will give me situations that require waiting. I prayed for contentment, and God has made me do without and asked me to make more sacrifices. I have prayed for God to be enough and I have been put into a bleak circumstance where He has to be. I have prayed for hope and God has given me a life crisis where He is the only hope to cling to. I prayed for increased faith and I found myself in a situation that required me to deeper with God.

Life deals us brokenness. We are shaken to the core of our faith. It seems as if God is not interested in answering those prayers. His silence seems a bit awkward and stifling. I cling to the knowledge that He is God and He knows what He is doing. What I have realized is it's not the answer that is important here, but He is really interested in who we are becoming. He wants us to have more. More faith, more hope, more of Him. To become more like Him is important, so much so, that He will use anything in our life to make that happen. Even a crisis of belief.

I don't know where you are in this. I am thick in the middle of it. This journey called life. For me it doesn't get easier. At least it hasn't. Full of twists and turns, the surprises of goods and the bads. Through it all am learning more about WHO He is rather than WHAT He can do. It hurts, yes, but I know it's for His clear and simple purpose. One day I will have an "account of the bush" (Mark 12:26) where God will reveal His purpose and plan.

God's planner is full. It's about the journey. "Getting where God wants me to go isn't nearly as important as becoming who God wants me to be in the process. And God seems to be far less concerned with where I'm going than with who I am becoming." ~ Mark Batterson, Wild Goose Chase.

God's calendar is perfect. The question really isn't if you can trust God, it's more about can you wait? Will I trust God to know what He is doing and have hope about my particular situation when it seems like life is piling up into a giant heap of garbage? Our best prayers are often the weakest ones. The prayers that hand our wills over to God. Those prayers that sound like groans, our cries, our sighs. Those are the ones the Holy Spirit interprets, filters, and presents to God in such a way that it gives us exactly what we need even if it’s not exactly what we want (Romans 8:27). Or God gives us what we want in a way that we don’t want or couldn’t have imagined. Nothing occurs to God meaning He's never had an "ah-ha!" moment.

God’s packaging is precise. He’s been in this business of answering prayers for a long time and He knows what He’s doing. Keep praying and trust that what you get is exactly what you need, what you asked for, or better yet His best. The bundle might not look like you thought it would. But it’s going to help you become the person you should. Through it all God knows.