Tonight I watched one of the corniest and goofiest movies I’ve ever seen: Evan Almighty. Nevertheless, all was not lost – there was one profound line from Morgan Freeman in the movie that struck a chord and will probably forever stick with me. He asks,
“If someone prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience? Or does He give them the opportunity to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage or does He give them opportunity to be couragious? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings or does He give them opportunity to love each other?”
How often have you prayed and felt like God did not answer your prayer? If you’re anything like me then it’s happened, and going through something like this has caused a number of emotions – confusion, abandonement, hopelessness. Sometimes we even lose faith. (After all, we are a “fast food” society that expects lightning speed results, right?) Yet, God’s strategy and timing for answering our prayers does not always coincide with our expectation. In fact, many times, while we are yet searching for our answer, mentally pacing in our minds, back and forth, back and forth, we fail to imagine that perhaps God has already provided us the answer we need. You see, God’s answers are not always simple and easy, or the most conspicuous and convenient, but they are, indeed, always right and they are always targeted at the very root of the matter. I think it comes down to the fact that God is more interested in having us “grow” into our answers, so that we may gain understanding and wisdom, than to have our answers fed to us on a silver spoon and suffer not knowing the value of the gifts or the process of how to get them if we may ever need them one day again.
Romans 5:3-5
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.