As Christians, we cry to God for help especially when we are in a great deal of pain. Suffering. The very thing that makes us question God’s goodness. Oftentimes, when we pray, we ask for a quick fix or an easy way out of the situation. When the situation does not seem to get better and what we prayed goes unanswered, we feel ignored and unheard. When we see no evidence that God was doing anything about our agony, we question and wonder if the God we believe in is cruel to allow us to suffer.
God indeed promised us in Jeremiah 33:3 that when we call unto him, he will answer and show us great and mighty things in which we do not know.
We might ask ourselves, what happened to this promise?
In the same passage, God had made it clear that he will show us great and mighty things in which we do not know. As finite beings, we cannot comprehend the reasoning of our omnipotent God. No man can withstand seeing God’s plan in advance. It must be revealed daily.
Written in 1 John 5:14-15:
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”
God does not want us to suffer. He longs to help us. This is through the process of being made into the image of Jesus Christ. He is our ultimate example of balancing well between divine faith and human feelings, so we become more like Him. While we were hurting and begging for help, He did not turn a blind eye to us. I believe it took Him every bit of restraint to not step in and remove our pain. Just like a father, God loves us way too much to answer our prayers at any other time than the right time and the right way.
by Cheryl Hawkins
Cheryl Hawkins 