In Sunday School yesterday we've been talking about praying, and the question was asked, have you ever prayed for something that you think is impossible and you know that it will never be able to happen unless God does it?
Then someone threw out this quote, "There is a God we want, and there is a God who is. They are not the same God. And the turning point of our lives is when we stop seeking the God we want, and start seeking the God who is."
How true.
So many times I have tried to pray to God and ask Him for what I think should happen. Or what I want to happen and when. It is only when I step back and realize that my time is NOT God's time that I have the peace of knowing that He is the one in control. We try sometimes to mold God into what we want Him to be. In going through infertility, my prayer for so long was to just get pregnant. Right then. That month. I wanted it on my time. It is so difficult to hand over everything to God and let Him have the control. Now that I am pregnant, I find myself sometimes, begging that our child be carried to full term and be healthy. It is so hard to give it over. I know that God's plan is the best plan. But I pray constantly that His plan is the same as mine!
Have you ever heard the saying "God laughs when you make plans" ?
One guy in class said that his problem was that he would say - God let me handle it up to this particular point, and then you can have it. How many times do I do this? We need to just give Him everything. Up front. Before we try to "handle" it ourselves.
I felt really inspired after that class.
Great post! You are right that it is hard to sit back and let God do what he will.
ReplyDeleteRight now I am in the middle of a debate with myself over how much influence God actually has in our lives. Is it just over the big things or even the tiny details? I toss that idea around ALOT!
In my mind I feel that infertility and other conditions are a by product of how we have chosen to live. I think the hard question for me is when you not by what God has given us. Whenever I pray to God about something it always leaves a question of why?
If God was so loving why did he allow that 16 year old to get pregnant? What have I done wrong. Which is why I do not think God has much to do with the life choices and the gentics we were given. Sometimes life is hard and what we have is what we have.
I guess I am still sorting this all out in my mind. It is nice to see someone who is happy and has overcome infertility. Thanks for sharing your thoughts of the lesson, this idea is always a good reminder!
Funny, we had pretty much the same message last week at church. Over the past five or so years there has been so much of hubby's and my lives that have been out of our control and we have had to learn to "go with the flow". One thing I am glad it taught me was to ask God to help us, but in the way he saw fit. Not to give us a particular job we wanted but to guide us to what was right. The same thing with ttc - I asked God to help us become parents one way or another and to help us to know when/if it was time to move onto a new path to get there. I have found it is actually much more peaceful to ask just to be guided and then to trust God than to beg for a specific thing to go just my way!
ReplyDeleteSo true! It is so hard to give COMPLETE control over to God. His plans always turn out so much better than ours, though. :-)
ReplyDeleteSo true. Very good post. Thank you for writing this and giving me a little reminder. :)
ReplyDeleteSo true! Its an every day battle. I have to release my IF to God EVERY SINGLE DAY! It makes it even more difficult when going through the treatments. I remind myself... "My RE is not God... he does NOT create life." God is the creator of life... he is the one who says yay or nay!
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