How do you trust and accept God’s will in hard times when you are struggling and it seems like He is not answering your prayers?
My husband and I have been trying to have kids for nearly the whole three years of our marriage. I am going to be 35 years old this month. I fear I may never have kids. It is a righteous desire to want to be a mom and to raise children in the fear of the Lord. It is a godly thing for a woman to do. We pray constantly for God to bless us with a family. How do I keep trusting and accepting God’s will in this time? Why hasn’t he answered that prayer?
He has answered.
An answered prayer does not mean we get a “yes” every time. Sometimes God gives an astounding, “no” to our supplications. That does not mean he didn’t answer. It just wasn’t the answer we were hoping to get. Sometimes a seemingly answered prayer is God causing us to learn patience and lean on Him in our weakness. Hard times strengthen and purify our faith. “Endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the holy Spirit who has been given to us,” (Romans 5:4-5).
A difficult aspect of the Christian walk is accepting that God’s plan for our lives may not be the same as our own plan. However we are to pray for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. That does not mean we pray only for the shiny perfect aspects of His will that line up with our own five year plan. He is the sovereign God and creator of this world. We are not. His plan and will far surpass our own in terms of majesty, holiness and goodness. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways my ways, declares the Lord,” Isaiah 55:8.
The Apostle Paul on Trusting and Accepting God’s Will
Paul prayed three times to remove a thorn in his flesh but the Lord did not take away his struggle. It was not because Paul did not have enough faith or did not pray the correct way. If an apostle does not have enough faith for an answered prayer then what hope would we have for ours to be answered? Scripture clearly says the Lord left the thorn to bring God glory and to grow Paul’s faith in the Lord.
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12: 9-10
We have to remember that there is no such thing as a prayer answered too late either. God does not function within our concept of time. He is outside of time, eternal, unchanging, all knowing and sovereign. He is never late or early. Everything occurs at the exact right moment that he has decreed. He created the world out of nothing simply by speaking it into existence. Carrying out His will is not a possibility but a certainty. Nothing is ever off schedule from His perfectly decreed timeline. “But do not overlook this one fact beloved, that with the Lord one day is a as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness…” (2 Peter 3: 8-9a).
Trusting and Accepting God’s Will as an Act of Worship
I am still learning to trust God and accept His will in my life. I know however that whatever comes my way in life is perfectly within His sovereign will and that gives me peace. He created every thing in the world. He knows every hair on my head. A sparrow does not fall to the ground without His knowing, (Matthew 10). He knows and decrees everything that comes to pass. Even in my darkest moments I can praise the Lord because it is a day he has made and we can rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118).
That means even my struggles, dissapointments and heartbreaks are part of His sovereign will. And that is the beauty of it all. Nothing that I’m going through is meaningless. It is part of the almighty God’s perfectly orchestrated plan and purpose. “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble,” (Proverbs 16:4). Furthermore because He is a good Father and loves His children we can trust that whatever comes to pass is actually for our own good.
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8: 28
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