Just because God can do anything doesn’t mean He would. Or should.
If you follow pro football at all, I’m sure you remember the Tim Tebow phenomenon from 10–15 years ago. Actually, even if you’re not a big NFL fan you probably remember it. It was a big cultural thing.
Tebow was an outspoken Christian, and a great college quarterback. He got drafted in the first round, but there were serious questions about whether his throwing mechanics and style of play would translate to the NFL.
Even so, he ended up finding his way into a starting role. And he started winning, and took Denver to their first division championship and playoff win in several years.
Then it was over about as quick as it started. Tebow got traded, lasted a year as a backup, tried pro baseball, attempted an NFL comeback as a tight end, none of which worked.
But while it lasted it was interesting to say the least. Many people were convinced that God was allowing Tebow to win to show the world what faith could do.
And maybe He was. He certainly could affect the outcome of a football game if He wanted to. But personally I doubt it. Or if He was, the reasoning probably wasn’t as clean as we’d like.
Aside from Tebow, there were presumably some men of God on the other teams. Bad guys on both sides too. Not to mention the fact that how much does it really matter who wins a football game?
The Bible tells us to come to God in prayer with our needs. Jesus even tells us that whatever we ask for in prayer, believing, we will receive.
But we’ve all prayed for things that didn’t happen. Does that mean we didn’t have enough faith? Or is there something more going on?
I think there’s something more going on.
Explaining God to a person has been likened to explaining the internet to an ant. Even if you can grasp it partially, you’ll never really understand well enough to see how it all fits together.
So yes, we are supposed to ask for what we think we need. But when we don’t get it, that doesn’t mean God didn’t listen. We can trust that God knows what He’s doing, even when we can’t see how it fits together. And even when the outcome isn’t the one we wanted.
I’ll leave the details out to protect others, but personally I had some things going on awhile back that I wasn’t sure how to deal with. And didn’t really know how to explain.
But I reached out to a friend and associate of mine who is a Christian, and he reminded me. God knows better than we do what is needed, even when we don’t know exactly what to ask.
So we prayed.
It’s been years, and it still hasn’t worked out in the way I’d like to see. But I trust that God knows what needs to happen, even if it’s not what I would choose.
And that’s what I need to remember.
What if we ask for something that doesn’t fit God’s plan?
We can look to the example of Jesus. In Gethsemane, He asked for the cup to pass from Him. But He also said, “Not as I will, but as You will.”
The Father heard Him. But the cup wasn’t taken away.
Lucky for us.
P.S. We may never fully understand God’s plans, but the more time we spend in His Word, the better we can understand what He’s told us.
I run another site called HisWordTogether.com that helps you stay on track reading through the Bible once a year. Every year.
No commentary. No telling you what to think. Nothing to buy. Nothing fancy.
Just steady time in the Word.
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