God cares about the good things that you care about. Even the seemingly most insignificant things that you value will have value in His eyes as well. To illustrate this, here its a brief story about my wife:
My wife usually gets whatever she asks for from God. It’s honestly amazing. I was sitting at my desk at work one day when I noticed my boss looking at a very nice bookshelf next to my desk. It had been there since I began working there about seven months prior.
I never paid attention to the bookshelf nor did I ever use it. I was a little shocked when he asked me if I wanted it. I looked at him with a little fear, because I knew if I came home with a bookshelf that my wife did not approve of, I would be in trouble.
I texted my wife a picture of the bookshelf and asked her if she wanted it. She responded yes in all caps and four exclamation points. I shared this with my boss, and he helped me deliver it to our home a week later. Side note: He was a great guy and I was blessed to have him as a boss.
I later learned my wife had been begging God for a bookshelf. She had undertaken a personal decision that year to be more content with what she already had. To do this, she made a vow to herself that she would not buy anything bedsides the essentials for that entire year. Therefore, she did not buy a bookshelf when she saw the need for us to purchase one. Another side note: we just moved into a new house a year prior and some of the rooms were still mostly empty.
Her solution to the problem was not to break her vow, but to beg God to take care of it. I was astounded. When I told a coworker the story, he suggested that I have my wife ask for a million dollars.
Some might question why God would waste His time with something so insignificant. There are far more important prayers in the world that one would think should be answered before someone gets a bookshelf. The key to understanding this is with God, someone getting what they pray for does not take away His power to answer the prayers of others.
God is all powerful and all knowing. He can answer everyone’s prayers and is doing just that, however, sometimes we fail to see it. Sometimes God gives us exactly what we want, how we want it, and when we want it. Other times, it’s a little different, but we are still absolutely getting what we ask for. It may not be the specific thing we ask for, as everyone who has asked God for a million dollars this past year already knows, but we will get what we are truly asking for through God.
We must understand what we are really seeking through what we are asking for. When we ask for a million dollars, what we really want is security, fun, peace from financial burden, and freedom. In fact, if we already had these things, we wouldn’t really want the money anyway.
When we ask Jesus with persistence, we always get whatever we want through whatever we are asking for. We will always eventually find the joy, excitement, peace, security, and more we seek from God. We can do this by keeping our heart open to God and trusting in Him enough to keep coming back with our problems and desires until they are satisfied.
This is what my wife did, and God gave her a simple bookshelf, which also shows us He cares about what we care about. A bookshelf for our house might be the least important item on our list of prayers. However, it was important to my wife, so it was important to God.
The same is true of your cares. Yes, we should absolutely pray for others and their needs, which my wife does, but our Father in heaven wants to take care of us as well. He even wants to take care of what we see as mundane.
In John 2, at the wedding of Cana, Jesus did exactly that. When the wedding couple ran out of wine at their wedding, they brought the issue to Mary who lead them to Jesus. Jesus did not say, “What?! Can’t you see that there are worse problems out there? You should be asking me to help the poor or solve the problem of violence.” Instead, He took care of the couple’s problem. He gave them more wine.
This is a beautiful illustration of what Jesus wants to do for you. He wants you to come to Him with hope and trust to ask for your wants and needs. It does not always need to be things that we ask for, but we can pray for solutions, assistance, protection and more. We don’t need to limit what we think God will do.
Finally, we should be careful not to put limitations on God when we do not see Him responding to our prayers the way we expect Him to. Especially if God is making you wait, keep trusting in Him! Sometimes God doesn’t meet our expectations now, so He can exceed them later.
When we are too attached to our expectations with God, we limit His role in our lives. We determine He can only do things our way, which sets us up for disappointment, and not peace, when He does not bring about what we were hoping for, and how we were hoping to get it. With patience and faith we will always come to the conclusion that God’s way is better.
He doesn’t see reality as we do. He sees the big picture and knows better than us what is best for us. If we only think of our own plan, neglecting God’s, then we will for sure miss out on the amazing life that God wants to give us.
I know I will never be as creative as God, so I let go of my expectations when I see that things are not going as expected. I then seek God in prayer and ask Him what He is doing. It may not be immediate, but He always answers, and when I am patient and open, He always leads me to true peace and lasting joy.
Sometimes, God will answer your prayer exactly how and when you want. This is what He did for my wife. However, if He answers your prayers in a different way, you can trust that He is still working to bring you the same satisfaction. Therefore, let us pray especially that, whatever we may want or need, we may find true fulfillment and satisfaction in the Lord. Amen.
