Hoping For The Wrong Answer

Psalm 96

Lord, you know how down and discouraged I have been. How do I deal with needing a different job? how to work amongst the conflicts at work?, how do I address the needs of my children? How do I deal with this need to help these people I have come to know over the last ten years who need better reports of their health records? How do I make time to continue learning? And also get in time to meditate and write? And that time management thing too Lord?

Believe me this is only the beginning of questions in prayer it aeems like And so in that frame of mind I look forward to the next Psalm to "solve all my problems". Well, we do that don't we? We're often told that "Christ is the answer" and "the answer to all our problems is found in the Word of God", and so we hope and pray the answer is in the next thing we read in the Bible. And you know, there are plenty of times we read and say that "God knew that is exactly what I needed at that moment." But often enough we go to God's Word hoping for the wrong answer. "But Lord, I need to know! And you've said if any man lack wisdom let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally, and He doesn't get upset about us constantly asking for wisdom, He doesn't get tired of our asking, doesn't make us feel bad about it."

But then His answer, His wisdom doesn't seem to fit what we are asking for, doesn't fit the format we hoped would be laid out step by step. And the reason it seems that way is simply because it's not what we are hoping the answer will be.

Interrupted thoughts on this. In the last 12 hours of this writing so much has unexpectedly changed since I began writing a couple of days ago. A prayer, even part of one that is listed at the beginning has been answered, but is also really only a beginning of being answered. Even the direction of this time of meditation has taken a very different way than I even thought it would, or how I planned. "A man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”

This also reminds me of my continuing grief of the loss of my wife, which incidently had part in this answer, and beginning answer to prayer. One thing in grief in such loss is that great burden for some to ask, "Why?" The truth is that we wouldn't even begin to understand the "Why" if God did answer that question. Even more the answer to "Why" may have nothing directly to do with me as harse as it may sound. The hardest part is trusting that God knows what He is doing in my loss. And this time I can't help but see, NOW, at this hour, this moment something totally asked for, but unexpected, much like Peter showing up knocking at the gate of the house where the church prayer meeting is being held because Peter is in prison, so that can't be Peter, he's in prison. Yeah, it's that kind of answer to prayer. And so with that happening now, I mean right now, this moment in time as i write these words, Psalm 96 is so explosively true to me. It is exactly what I need now. Not when I began writing this, but now, right here, in the middle of the night The answer wasn't in the Scripture I read in light of how I feel, but rather in the work God was in process of doing as I began writing and wondering, how could this Scripture be the "answer" I was hoping for in my life?

It wasn't the words of this Scripture I needed to work in my heart to be "the answer hoped for", but rather the working of God in answering my prayer that this psalm would be in my heart when I saw the work God is doing, and doing greatly quite simultaneously as I meditate and write.

God's Word is powerful and truly changes lives. How important to know God's Word not returning void is what God is doing in hearts and lives around us which may be used for "the answer we hope for".

I can't even begin to explain how Psalm 96, every word, thought, line fits so perfectly what God has done and is doing. These words I expected to come from the Scripture rather than the work God was doing in other lives. Oh to remember God uses Scripture, but He is working in the world around us.

Sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, and praise his Name: declare his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among all nations, and his wonders among all people. For the Lord is great and much to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are idols: but the Lord made the heavens.

Psalms 96:1-5 GNV

Without more of an explanation these words are literal, these words are true. And I could have just as well posted the whole of this psalm. Just as much as you are in the dark about knowing what is going on in my answer, and beginning answer to prayer, so was I until I was told less than twelve hours ago. We have the Word, even as I alluded to in my previous meditation, that I didn't want to tell God of His attribute unless I have personality experienced it, but it was God working in ways I couldn't have brought together if I tried. We may ask "Why" for grief, but we also ask "How" in the same way for answers to prayer that are happening before we ask.