Before I continue, I need to make clear that I do not
believe in unanswered prayers. I believe that a loving Heavenly Father
hears and answers EVERY sincere prayer. Granted, the answer we seek may not
come in the time we want, or we may not receive the answer we want, or perhaps
we only receive a piece at a time and feel a little empty handed. Regardless of
what we see or feel in relation to our prayers, every prayer is heard.
With that being said, I do want to get back to these
blessings I have recently been seeing that, for my purposes today I will call
unanswered prayers.
When I have decisions to make, I take them to the Lord. I
had a friend tell me once not to take my choices to the Lord, but rather to
take my decisions. Basically, I use my best judgment to make a decision between
two or more choices and then go to
the Lord. I know He will always stop me if I’m going down a path that I shouldn’t
be on. I have seen it in my life personally to not believe that. In one
particular situation I took a decision to the Lord and told Him what I had
planned to do. I felt good about my decision and didn’t feel anything telling
me not to go down this path. As I went along down this path, I started feeling
promptings to look again at this decision, which I did, but only half-heartedly
because I was on the path I wanted and I had felt good about it and I was
hesitant to reconsider in case I was becoming a bit…fearful (for lack of a
better word - perhaps having second thoughts or doubts??). I continued making choices on this path, some good, some not so
good. Finally, I knew I needed to choose another path and I again, in full
sincerity this time, went to the Lord and asked for some direction in
connection with the decision that I had reached. When I did that, the path was
opened to me. A new path emerged that I hadn’t previously seen and, had it come
into sight sooner I don’t know that I would have selected it…at least not with
some major help from the other side.
Since that time I have looked over that journey. I look back
to the first time I prayed about that decision and note how “right” it felt (or
at least that it lacked any sort of negative feeling that would have guided me
away from that decision). I see where my life has taken me since that time and
I see things that I feel I have missed out on. In my mind’s eye I can see what
I think things would have been like
if I had stayed on that path. There are times where I long for the days of my
past to be my present, to have things the way they were.
How blessed I am that the more time that passes, the more
I see that things wouldn’t be the way I hoped. There were realities that I wasn’t
aware of or refused to see. I was young and unprepared, and besides, things rarely
are what they seem. More and more frequently I am having experiences, and I
even had one of these experiences this weekend, where I can see VERY clearly
that my life, though it has changed direction many times, is as it should be.
My prayers for one thing weren’t answered the way I hoped. Instead, I was given
something far greater, and the blessings continue to come (I seriously don’t
deserve any of it)! I am grateful for my UNFULFILLED prayers (yay!! I came up
with an alternate name!!) and the way they help me grow and count my blessings
and allow me to learn to trust in the Lord with greater capacity.
No comments:
Post a Comment