Even if He doesn't....

I went back and was reading a couple of Ann VosKamp's blog posts I had missed last week.  One of the posts was entitled "When You Just Want God to Show Up and Answer Your Prayers."   

She reminds us that God is not a genie, He is no puppet on a string.  So what if-what if He doesn't do what we so desperately want Him to do?  Where does that leave us?

Her answer, "And the three men before the fire, they whisper the startling answer in Daniel, the answer of all of holy writ and writhing humanity, "And even if He doesn't...." "

And then she had a list of "Even If's..."

"Even if He doesn't do what we beg, we are still His beloved."

"Even if He doesn't, He still is."

"Even if He doesn't do what we will, His will is still right and His heart is still good and the people of God will not waver."

"Real prayer has eyes on Christ-not the crisis."

"Even if He doesn't He does give enough-Himself"

"Even if He doesn't-He does still love us."

"If He doesn't-I will still believe, still believe-in Him."

"That which we fear might happen to us-might be the thing to produce deep faith in us.  Why be afraid of anything-when He's using everything?"

"God is answering all our prayers.  No one enters into the real joy of the Lord in spite of the hard times-but squarely through the door of the hard times."

Even if can be such a hard thing to remember when we are in the midst of a hard time, but what a joy to know that our God loves us more than we can comprehend or imagine.  His ways are perfect and are far better than ours.  "Why be afraid of anything-when He's using everything?" 

You can read all of Ann's post by clicking on the link at the top of this post or here.  Enjoy!