Sufficient: What if he hasn't come through?

I have put off writing this post partly because I've been pretty busy recently, and partly because it's a difficult one to write. What do we do when God hasn't come through?

There are several situations in my life right now where I really desperately need him to come through. And he hasn't. At least as far as I see it. This is an issue which has often been ignored, certainly in some areas of Christianity I have come across. There is a lot of pressure to trust and believe and expect the seemingly impossible healing, setting free, renewal or whatever it is we need, but nobody tells us what to do when we have invested everything and nothing seems to have happened.

When we see no change in a painful situation it hurts. When there is nothing we can do to change things other than pray, it seems hopeless.

(Interestingly, as I write these words I am also realising how we can subconsciously look on prayer as a less useful thing to do in a difficult situation. It can seem like prayer is a last resort: 'I've done everything I can do so I'll just have to fall back on prayer as a last hope that something might happen'. Offering somebody prayer can feel less 'useful' than offering them practical support.

Now I know that both prayer and practical support are vital, and when friends stand with someone in need both spiritually and practically it is a beautiful partnership that brings glory to God. Either one without the other is likely to be insufficient, but sometimes practical support is not possible, so then we can pray all the more. Prayer is not less useful. It is not airy-fairy. It is not a cop-out or admitting defeat. Actually it kind of is admitting defeat. It's saying to God 'I can't do this on my own. Please come through for me.')

So what do I do when I have prayed and tried to help and tried to help and prayed, and then prayed some more and nothing seems to change?

It's a horrible answer but it's all I've got and I'm pretty sure it's what our loving God wants us to do: wait. Wait, pray and seek him. Pursue our relationship with him, or if we can't manage that because we're so spent, cling on to the rock of hope. 'God I trust you' is sometimes all we can manage but it is all that is necessary (more on this in part 5).

And it turns out not to be horrible actually. As we wait we can watch out for the little things that he does for us day to day: the first flowers of Spring coming out, the laughter of children playing, a beautiful sunset (or sunrise if you're the early morning type...), a smile from a friend. He's still paying attention and watching over us even if he's not clicking his fingers to make everything 'right' in an instant. The pain doesn't leave but it is tempered with hope.

And remember, we as people do tend to be in a hurry. I want God to do everything now. I don't want to see this person suffer any longer. Surely we've waited long enough now. But Abraham and Sarah waited many years for the promise to be fulfilled, and the Israelites wandered for 40 years in the desert. Imagine how long that seemed... We may not even see the answers while we walk on Earth but that does not mean God doesn't have it sorted.

One thing my pastor often says is that God likes to build the drama. It's like a really good book or film, where the hero comes through at the last possible minute to make the victory even more spectacular. If the hero came in when the situation was still salvageable how much glory would he get? Our God can do the impossible and sometimes wants to show us that. Sometimes he wants to draw us closer to him as we seek him and pursue him for an answer. Sometimes 'bad things' just happen to 'Christians' and 'non-Christians' alike - shock horror, I know - God doesn't owe us anything and we as humans have no right to an easy and carefree life. In fact I know I do appreciate the good times more because of the bad times, and it is mostly in the bad times that I do seek God with determination.

This has turned into a bit of a long rambly post. To summarise, God does not always come through straight away, and it often isn't in the way we expect (how many times has a situation resolved differently from how you would have liked, only for you to look back in the future and see how it was for the best?), but he is always listening, and he is always doing something. All we can do is trust, sometimes have a rant at him, sometimes cry our eyes out before him, sometimes wait patiently, sometimes seek fervently, and sometimes just lay down before him without any words left at all.

I rarely know why things happen, but experience is teaching me that he really does love me (and all of us). Not only that, he loves us perfectly and knows us perfectly and that is enough for me to trust him with each of those situations today. Tomorrow he will give me new strength to trust and hope again.