As November hits, my pace of life kicked into high gear. Suddenly things needed to be done appeared out of nowhere and everyone wanted to see me one last time. But in my heart, I have finally found peace and acceptance that this move is God's will for me for this time in life, and He will use it for good.
I am so blessed by pastor Tim's timely message Calvary Fremont - Sunday Service 10/29/23 - Bing video.
Can God change His mind? Sure! He can and sometimes he does. Hezekiah prayed and God granted him 15 more years. Moses prayed for the children and Israel, and God didn't destroy them. When Nineveh repented, God changed his mind about destroying them. When Abraham prayed and negotiated for the number of righteous, God listened to his prayer.
When my parent first found out that they had cancer, we prayed, and we never prayed so hard with tears daily. We cried out to God with all of our hearts. But God let them die. Why did God not listen to our prayers? Some say that we didn't have enough faith. There are countless of cancer patients that received healing and gained 10 or 15 years more just like Hezekiah. But it wasn't meant to be for my mom and dad. Why? I wondered so often.
There are two types of will; God's absolute will and conditional will. God's absolute will cannot be changed. His conditional will can be changed, yet always in line with His character. We don't know what it will be, but we just need to pray. King David prayed that God would save the life of the baby that he had with Bathsheba, but God did not. Once the baby died, he accepted that it was God's absolute will and he had peace with it. Jesus asked that the cup of suffering be taken from him, and God said no. Paul asked for the thorn to be removed, but God said no, His grace is sufficient for him. Moses asked to enter into the Promised land and God said, "speak to me no more about this." There are times when the will of God that cannot be changed no matter how much we wanted it to be different.
We want our spouses to change, but they remained the same and their habits/character defects bothered us and make us suffer daily. We think to ourselves, "This is not the marriage I signed up for, God, please change him/her!" yet nothing changes year after year. Yet God calls us to stay and love unconditionally. He calls us to appreciate and embrace the difference. Sometimes I learn to stop fighting the unwinnable battles and accept the things we cannot change. I wished that the Lord changes His mind about me moving to Taiwan, but He wants me to go there. I say, what about my kids, what about my dog, my possessions, my friends? what about the life I always imagined having here near my kids in the States? God told me to trust Him through it all. This morning in "Jesus Calling", I read, "Collaborate with Me in this effort by being willing to let go of anything I choose to take away. I know what you need, and I have promised to provide all of that--abundantly! Your sense of security must not rest in your possessions or in things going your way. I am training you to depend on Me alone, finding fulfillment in My Presence."
Don't we all wish that our story is one much like Hezekiah? We prayed and God saw our tears and immediately answered our prayers overwhelmingly beyond we imagined. These times do happen, and we give glory to God, and we are very thankful. I wish I can say 99% of the time God answers our prayers the way we wanted it. The truth is God does answer, and His answers are either "yes" or "no" or "wait". But what if we are praying in a situation that is against God's absolute will. He does not budge. So why even pray?
God instructed us to pray like the persistent widow who didn't give up but kept pressing into Him. The reason to pray is that we don't know if it's God's absolute or conditional will. Could it be that, like the judge hearing the widow, after a long persistent prayer, God decided to change His mind? possibly. Even if you know it's God's absolute will, why pray? In the example of Jesus and Paul, we pray so that we can align our will with God's will. We say, "not my will, but Your will be done." We say, "God, this is not what I imagined, but I know that You will use this for my highest good." "I trust You in every situation because You have my highest good in mind." Like Paul, we accept that though the thorn is still in us poking us and bringing us pain daily, but yet he declared that God's grace is sufficient to deal with the thorn and that the thorn is there for a purpose (to keep Paul humble) and develop a Christlikeness in him. Brothers and sisters, do you have a thorn that God allows to remain in your life? I know I do. I am so blessed by those examples of Jesus and Paul. Keep coming into the presence of God and spend time with Him, allowing the Holy Spirit to change our hearts so we can embrace His will for us.
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