Choose Not to Look for the Quick Fix

Yet Another Year of Choices

By Barbara Dahlgren

A few years ago an acquaintance with a bothersome back problem was lamenting to me that God had not healed her.  She wondered why.  Then she named off those in the Bible God had healed and a few others she knew first hand.  After all, she was a Christian who prayed for others.  Why had God not taken away her pain after she had consistently beseeched him to do so?

There were a couple of things I tried to gently point out to her. First, it’s not wise to compare our situation to another’s, since God works with each of us on an individual basis. Secondly, perhaps God does not exist to take away our pain.  Healing is something God performs for His glory not our comfort.  This was a totally foreign concept for her so she said, “I’ll have to think about that.”

Indeed, God is capable of easing our pain, but He doesn’t always touch us with a magic wand where it hurts to make it better – like kissing a “boo-boo.”  Although, He might sprinkle a little fairy dust of stamina, endurance, encouragement, perseverance, or peace of mind to help us make it through the hard times.

Living in a “quick-fix” society, we would all prefer God to instantly, magically fix our circumstances.  But God is not always in the “quick-fix” business. Sometimes He offers pieces of solutions – bit by bit.  Maybe He will plant a seed coming from something we might read, a phrase we might hear, the lyrics of a song we’re listening to, or something someone says off-handedly that starts us on the road to healing. We discover that perhaps God isn’t as concerned about our circumstances as our reaction to them or what we can learn from them.

Consider this… God is not our big sugar daddy in the sky waiting to grant our every request. True, He is omnipotent and has the power to give us everything we want, but He isn’t our personal Santa Claus anxious to fulfill everything on our wish list – even if we have been nice instead of naughty.  That would not be good for us and God is interested only in our good.

I often think of the following poem written by that famous author, Anonymous…

I asked for strength,
And God gave me difficulties to make me strong.

I asked for wisdom,
And God gave me problems to learn to solve.

I asked for prosperity,
And God gave me brain and brawn to work.

I asked for courage,
And God gave me dangers to overcome.

I asked for patience,
And God placed me in situations where I was forced to wait.

                                              I asked for love,                                                                             And God gave me troubled people to help.

 

One final thought…

God promised to supply our needs, not our wants.

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