"Can you think of a problem that has been overcome in a way you didn't expect?"
I'm on year six of writing in a Q&A-a-Day journal. Today's question, written above, made me think about how so much of my life and the challenges I've had have been overcome, but rarely if ever in the ways that I thought they would be.
I didn't know what to write as my answer for that question, because the answer is...everything. I may struggle to think of one big thing that has been overcome, but I can think of a hundred small, subtle things in life that God has worked out in such different ways than I could have ever planned. There are several prayer journals under my bed, and if I flip through their pages I'm reminded of all of those things, both little and not so little. How many situations have I worried over, only for God to dissolve them in such a way that I barely even noticed? How many issues of the heart have consumed my thoughts and energy, only for Him to heal those places so slowly that I didn't even realize He had until old journals reminded me?
Something I've noticed is that often times, His answering prayers and working out situations comes through a path that I wouldn't have chosen - a path of suffering in one way or another. Through the suffering, prayers are answered and He gives me not the blessings that I think I want, but the ones I need.
Because of being at the center of wrong assumptions and slander, He's answered my prayers to become more compassionate and long-suffering towards others, and to look at others with less judgmental eyes. Through loneliness and hurt over losing people, He's wrapped me up and said, "I'm enough" in a way that I wouldn't have known otherwise. By His saying no to some of my dreams this year, He's allowed other dreams to be fulfilled, like getting to travel and see the world. He's allowed conversations to happen two years after I wished they would have, but not a moment too soon. By shutting certain doors I wanted to walk through, He's opened doors to colorful new worlds that I couldn't have imagined being better, but not surprisingly, they were. It's been through His saying "No" to some of my requests that He's answered others: a "No" to a certain desire means a "Yes" to my prayers for greater contentment. The "No's" I've gotten from Him have lead to better "Yeses," even when I couldn't admit it at the time. "No" to dreams and desires has meant "Yes" to more time with Him, a softer heart, the ability to wait, to work on character issues...the list goes on. He answers the prayers that He wants to answer. He answers the prayers to get rid of the branches that don't bear good fruit in me, even if the pruning is painful.
His answers are better simply because they're His. Doesn't matter if they are the answer to my prayers or if they're not want I wanted at all. It's taken years, but I can finally see that sometimes, whatever suffering I'm enduring is exactly what He's going to use to answer prayers. I don't usually understand it and am rarely able to see how in the world He will use it, but then He does, and it all makes sense.
He remembers all of my requests - even the ones I don't remember praying. He remembers every prayer that's been said while curled up in a ball on my bed, driving down the road, and sitting in church. He remembers every earnest plea, and He knows the answers to them before they're even prayed.
He is such a creative God! I've come to love and appreciate the unexpected ways that He answers prayers. They're reminders of how small minded I am and how all-knowing and sovereign He is. I can think of 10 possible answers to a prayer - all of them good options in my mind, and He will answer with an 11th; one that is so completely not what I expected. And I think that's part of it, too. It's a way He reminds me, "I've got this, Camille. You don't see everything that I see. Trust Me."
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