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  • Writer's pictureDebbie Salter Goodwin

When God Doesn't Give the Answer You Want


We are questioning people. We came by this skill naturally. We amused our parents with our first questions. Then, we frustrated them with too many questions. Then, we made them feel incompetent with questions they couldn’t answer. We’re good at asking questions.

We just aren’t very good at waiting for answers.

This is especially true when we ask God that question about to burn a hole in our heart. It is the question that we feel demands an answer. The question that we believe needs an answer before we can move forward. Waiting for that answer frustrates us, sometimes to the point that we stop waiting.

How tragic and unnecessary.

I try to wait for God’s answer. But trying isn’t the same as being open, is it? I have to get past what I want to hear and when I want to hear it.

Thankfully, God doesn’t bow to what I want and for good reason. He knows more than I do. He refuses to shortchange me by working within my boundaries. Instead, He offers His wisdom from an unbounded perspective from the beginning of time.

How do I listen when my need for answers is like an incoming tide waiting to drown me?

I am learning the importance of God’s short invitations.

Come.

Listen.

Be still.

Fear not.

They re-orient me away from a me-first, need-first desperation. They connect me to the One who hears me and will speak. Besides, f I can’t hear His invitation, it’s possible I won’t recognize His answer.

These days, when life has overturned so much of what I thought it would be, I’m listening for His invitation.

He invites me to His heart.

He wants me close so that I don’t miss a word or misunderstand a motive. When I accept His invitation, the right answer to my real need usually follows.

I can wait when His invitation connects me to His unfailing love for me. I can wait when I know that He will use every resource He believes will make the right difference. I can wait as long as He waits with me.

And He always does.

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