What If I Don't Like the Answer?

Have you ever sat at a ballgame  praying for your team to win? or for your child to make the perfect shot? or to block another player from making a perfect shot? or in my case, for your kid's band to all be in perfect step and hit the right notes at the right time?

Have you ever had a really bad day at work and ask God for just one thing to go right? or for this day to just hurry up and get over?

Yep, me too.

It's pick on Andrew day, I got a text from him this week, he has been working with a particularly stubborn shower door and every time he thinks it is fixed, it pops itself right back into its original shape.

He had texted me and I texted back, "Stop, pray, ask God to show you where the problem is and then listen when he tells you. I am praying".

He texted me back: "Did that, don't like the answer".

Been there, done that, TOO MANY TIMES!!!

I have read numerous articles this week on weather you should pray for your team to win, and I found one article that says it is more important for God to win. If you are praying for your child, what is best for him or her? Winning isn't always the best and it sometimes depends on what they are striving for. There will always be winners and losers, ( I would love to sugar coat this and say, winners and those who don't win, but my mom would yell at me). God's plans may involve us competing for things but just as there is a reason someone wins, there is a reason somebody else loses.

I was told a story once of an old man that God gave a seemingly perfect life. He always got the jobs he wanted, always got the things he wanted, married the girl he had adored since they were teens and grew to be an old man without any sickness or issues at all. The person who was relaying this story said, "God really blessed him". My thought was, "I wonder if God really had a lot of faith in him?" and while it is not my place to judge and I never even knew the guy, it really made me count my blessing for some of the things that God said no to and for the things that God has put me through because even though I wasn't sure I could handle it, He was.

Anyone who has ever had to be my boss, or my parent, will tell you, I HATE being told no. I would rather be told, "I doubt you can do that" than, "I will not allow you to do that".  And yet, God has to rope me in quite often, as does my boss, and as my mother has had to as well (and probably would still like to sometimes, though she does still give me very "strong" advise sometimes). My dad, well......yeah, he let me get by with things, and that just left him in trouble with my mom. The worst part is my dad would probably join in whatever crime I was wanting to commit. Most memorable was probably flying a kite, in the field behind our house, which was muddy and resulted in both of us having mud up to our knees. I will never forget it, neither will Mom. Not for the same reason though.

Back on task though, back to the most important thing being God winning. We have moments where we want to be in control, be in the limelight, and be the knight in shining armor, or fairy Godmother, whatever suits you best but the real deal is, everything we do is made possible though God's doings, not our own, so He should always be the one to receive the glory.

I think God puts us on the losing side sometimes to keep us humble, or maybe He just puts us on the losing side because the person that was on the winning side needed it worse, no matter how bad it hurts. The thing we have to remember, God will always do what is best for each one of us, He doesn't play favorites, and everything He does, He does with an end in mind.

None of us got where we are today by accident, it was His plan, with good times and bad times thrown in. There are still some bad things that has happened that I don't understand and I will always question but isn't it funny that we never say, "When I get to Heaven, the first thing I am going to ask God is why he let me have the job I wanted", or "why did He let this or that just fall into place" and Why did you bless me so much?" We always have a list of bad things that we just can't wait to ask Him, but why don't we ask why He let the good things happen? I think it is because we have it in our heads that good things are the normal and bad things are the things that just happen. Wow, we really do take a lot for granted, don't we????

This is one of those weeks that this is more a message to myself than even a devotional. I have had a tendency to want to complain about things this week and I don't know the root. My boss, bless her heart, thinks it is because I am having withdrawal from steroids, and she could be right but God knows I am in a complaining mood and I know, or I can feel that He doesn't like it much.

I have not wanted to take care of my house this week, I haven't felt 100% and so a couple nights I came home and just sat, knowing I was just letting more laundry, dishes, and housework pile up and I would dread doing it more. You know what He did?

I went home early Wednesday and watched a Hallmark movie.......about a lady and her two kids who had seemingly had it all, until her husband died and she wound up losing everything, even just about losing the kids. She was homeless. I sat and cried, this of course, struck a cord with work but it made me feel very ashamed of myself for not wanting to go wash dishes, especially since that really just entailed rinsing them off and putting them in the dishwasher. This lady no longer even had her own dishes to wash. (The movie was called Welcome Home, it was on Feelin, which is Hallmark's streaming channel--we have a Roku--the movie was AWESOME!!)

I have shared before that my mom would make me read Job when things were bad but she also put a limit on the pity parties; that day, I got over my pity party pretty quickly. God is Good, All the Time.

I don't want to leave you without some scripture to ponder.

Just one verse: Matthew 5:45

⁴⁵ That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

We all live in the same world, and sometimes we think things aren't fair, or don't like His answers, but He really is giving us what is best. As you go about your day today, instead of questioning why God lets the bad things in your life happen, how about questioning why He lets the good things happen? There are more blessing than you think!

The song I leave you with today may be a bit of a stretch but it is very much one of my favorites (I know......I'm sorry, but I do get a lot out of this song, and I do love it.) Just a reminder that there is a reason for the bad things too.

Here is Francesca Battistelli's "This is the Stuff".