For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Philippians 2:13
My toddler–whom we nicknamed Buddy–has a bubbly personality, but one thing he doesn’t like is getting strapped into his car seat. “Down. Down please, Mommy!” he cries. He doesn’t like to be restricted. He doesn’t like sitting still in his car seat.
It takes energy to strap him into the seat, and I try to calm him with my words. “I know you don’t like this now… but just wait and see where we’re going!” There are times I have to fight to strap him in to go to the park or the zoo. I’m hoping the stage will pass, and Buddy will learn to trust me–trust that I have his best interest in mind, even if it feels confining for a time.
I’ve found the same true in my own life. There are times when I feel God confining me and shutting doors I wish were open. I pray. I plead. I cry, “Please, God.” But with no avail.
Usually I’m too busy complaining to hear His reassuring voice. I have something good in mind for you, Daughter. Trust Me. It’s not that God isn’t answering my prayers… it’s just that He has something better in mind for me. Something wonderful I can’t even imagine.
I can either struggle with Him, question His motives, and plead for my own desires, or I can pray, trust His motives, and listen to His heart. “Prayer is not an argument with God to persuade him to move things our way,” writes Leonard Ravenhill, “but an exercise by which we are enabled by his Spirit to move ourselves his way.”
Do you want to be able to trust God’s way? Pray for wisdom. Pray for the desire and power to follow His will and not fight for your own. You’ll never know what God has waiting for you right down the road.
Faith step: Next time you see a mom wrangling with a toddler, pray for that mom. Also pray that you’ll better submit to God’s will in your life.
