Do You Trust Him?

When we pray, we can fall into that human trap of wanting the answers we desire and wanting it right now.

• When we are hurting, we want to be comforted.
• When our relationships are falling apart, we want reconciliation.
• When we are sick, we want to be healed.

God loves us far too much to do things our way, so it stands to reason that we will not always receive our heart’s desires within the timeframe we’d like. The answers to our prayers may not look like anything that we, in our humanness, would even think to ask for.

It’s in these times that we can find our faith wavering as we lift trembling hands to heaven in frustration, our ifs, ands, buts and whys streaming down our faces.

Mike Weaver of Big Daddy Weave said, watching his ailing father encounter miracle after miracle, we can easily shift into the mindset that we can’t hear a “no” from God.

We know that

• He has promised He is for our good (Romans 8:28).
• He’ll prosper us (Jeremiah 29:11) and fight for us (Exodus 14:14).
• The Lord assures us He’ll never leave us (Isaiah 43:2, Psalm 23:4).
• And that victory will be ours (Isaiah 54:17).
• Through Jesus’ death on the cross, we are forgiven (John 3:16, John 3:36, Romans 10:9-10).
• He promises to answer our prayers (Mark 24:11).

But what exactly does an answer to prayer look like?

A Family Life Radio listener shared that she and several members of her family have been given a word from God that she will be healed from her mental health issues. She’s been on a handful of pills for nearly a decade, and when her mood suddenly began to stabilize for the first time in more than 30 years, her doctor began to remove daily medications, and she found herself down to a single tablet each night. She firmly believed her promised healing had occurred, but then eight months later, her depression cycled out of control, nearly resulting in hospitalization. Within a month, all those pills were added back in.

One evening, feeling particularly defeated, she listened to Big Daddy Weave’s “All Things New.” As she swallowed those pills, one by one, she asked, “Lord, what happened? Why am I back where I started when You promised to heal me? I thought you made me new, but I’m the same old, sick me.”

She felt an answer from God bubble up from deep within her soul, saying, “I did promise to heal you. And I will keep My promise. But what if your ‘new’ is not my ‘new?’ What if your timing is not mine? If you are still taking these pills in 20 years, will you still trust Me?”

She swallowed the final pill, and whispered, “Yes, Lord. I trust you.”

She was also reminded that, as a Christian blogger, she had been given a platform to share her mental health journey, and memories of all the emails she had received over the years came flooding back.

She remembered

• People who thanked her for encouraging them in the middle of their own similar struggles.
• They rejoiced with her in her victories and felt less alone when she talked about the valley she was walking through.

In her own brokenness, God gave purpose to her pain, and His promise of healing enabled her to put one foot in front of the other on the days when she felt damaged beyond repair.

“Oh wow,” it dawned on her, “He literally gives me ‘new’ every single morning.”

It wasn’t her new. It was His new. It was a promise fulfilled.

If you are walking through a challenging time in your life, I hope you are encouraged to find the “new” God is blessing you with, even if it’s not the picture you would have painted for yourself. He is a far more skilled artist than we could ever be, and while you may not understand the whys and hows of every brushstroke and every color, you can be confident in His promise to make your life a masterpiece.

You just have to answer His question: “Do you trust me?”

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