Even If He Does Not
What if you really don’t like God’s answers?
Verse of the Day
“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
Today’s Devotional
I feel like today’s version of this verse could be: Even if the stock market crashes, if I lose my income, if I get sick or someone that I love gets sick, if life as I know it ceases to exist, if I am stuck in the house, if my creature comforts get taken away, if everything feels uncertain, if no one agrees with my opinions, if I never get my way…I will still rejoice in the Lord.
I have this feeling that God wants me to want him because he is God, not because of the blessing and benefits. He wants me to want him more than I want or need anything in this world. But if I’m honest, that can be scary when you get down to the details of it. For instance, let’s say that our company fails during this crisis and we have no income. My first thought is not “Ok, God, I trust you”. My first thought is, “How long will we be without an income?” So maybe that tells me that I trust money more than I trust God.
This verse reminds me of the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, which can be found in Daniel 3. They refused to bow down to a golden idol, when the penalty was death by fire. When questioned about their decision, here is their response: “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Even if he does not. I pray for that kind of faith. If I pray diligently and the answer is no, may my faith still be strong. If I cannot pay my mortgage, may my faith not waiver. If everything falls apart, may I still rejoice that God is God and I am not.
I believe, as we study discernment, that we must be prepared for God’s answers to take longer than we expect or for those answers to be very different from what we had in mind. We do not seek discernment to get our way. We seek discernment to align ourselves with God. And many times that is not going to look the way we would have chosen. We need to decide that we will honor, worship and obey EVEN IF the answers don’t look the way we want them to look.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
Today, write out your “even if” list, including the things that may happen that scare you or make you uncomfortable…concluding your list with “yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
How can you ask God to increase your faith?
How has God been faithful in the past when an answer to prayer was not what you had wanted?