For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV)

The above verses paint a picture of our God as one who does, says, and creates in ways that we do not fully understand. Isaiah reminds us that just because we feel, think, or act a certain way does not mean that we are necessarily mimicking the ways of God.
Our creator is vaster and more complicated than anything our own minds can concoct or implement. That this also applies to how we believe help, healing, or divine presence should be implemented.

Has this ever been you? You are faced with an obstacle, a conundrum, a problem of various importance, and (as a good Christian) you fall to your knees and take it immediately to the Lord in prayer. Once you have earnestly and emotionally poured out your heart to God, laying the issue at his feet, you arise from your kneeling position and deeply breathe in and… nothing.

Nothing happens! No voice from heaven saying deeply, “I have heard thy supplication.” No descending beam of light that swirls around us in heavenly affirmation. And then that desperate thought starts to creep in…. Did God even hear my prayer?

Let me first answer that last question with a resounding, YES. Psalm 66 states, “But God has surely listened and has heard my prayer.” And 1st Peter states, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.”

So, if we are indeed professing and believing Christians, then we know that God has indeed heard our prayers. But our real question isn’t, “ Does God hear my prayer? But, if we are honest, it’s, “Will God answer my prayer exactly HOW I want it answered, and WHEN I want it answered? The HOW and WHEN are what we truly care about, not necessarily WHERE God is going to move in our request.

An important verse to have upon our hearts is one from 1st John, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”

Our requests to God must be in accordance with His own will, and then it says he “hears us”; it doesn’t say, “he will give you exactly what you ask for.” Those are two very different statements; one is truth (the scripture), and one is vehemently false (the later interpretation).

Sometimes we need to rest in the vagueness of God. Remaining still in the moments in between our prayer requests and God’s answers. Just being affirmed that the great creator of the universe, the Savior of humanity, the Messiah himself has heard our meager prayers and holds them in His heavenly presence.

That thought alone should give us peace and at least momentary stability. But, if you’re like me, you blow right past that sentiment and become impatient and impetuous with our God, because it isn’t happening on my own timeline.

What beauty do we miss when we do not watch or experience the process of Christ answering our prayers? When we look for our own answer instead of trusting and basking in the process. How much more would we appreciate the miracles of God if we watched them occur before our eyes?

Let us not be too quick to have our answers, my friends, and instead trust that whatever God is going to do, it is going to be amazing.

So, rest in the vagueness.

—

Pastor Mike McVey

Minister – First United Methodist Church, Fairfield, TX;

Chaplain – Texas Game Wardens, Freestone County

Cell: 919-935-2513

Email: pastormike@fumcfairfield.org

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20