Unanswered Prayers

I was in the car with my sister yesterday, when she introduced me to the Garth Brooks song “Unanswered Prayers’. Basically, the song is about a guy who falls for a girl in High School. He continuously prayers that the girl would be his, but it doesn’t happen and seems that God didn’t answer his prayer. Years pass and he is happily married to another woman,when he runs into his high school crush. After seeing her again he realises that he is happy that God didn’t answer his prayer.  He realises she wasn’t the woman for him, and is much happier with his wife. He is thankful that God didn’t grant him the wishes and desires of his youth, God had something better planned.

I know that God always hears my prayers, yet at times it feels like they go unanswered. My desires, longings, hopes and dreams now, may differ in years to come. Even though I think they are what’s best for me and what I really want, God ultimately knows different.

It may be a relationship that ended, or one that never even began, an acceptance to your first choice college that didn’t arrive, a work promotion that you didn’t get. You pray continuously for these things and yet they seem to go unanswered. God isn’t ignoring them, he’s just saying ‘No’ or ‘Not yet’. He’s saying that He knows best and to trust Him because He has something far better planned. We may be devastated to be told no now, but in years to come we can be so thankful for the seemingly unanswered prayers.

” ‘For I know the plans I have for you’, declares the Lord ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ ” – Jeremiah 29 v 11

 

 

God has a better offer

Just a quick extract from Max Lucado’s ‘Just like Jesus’ – 

 ‘When my daughter was a toddler, I used to take her to a park not far from our apartment. One day as she was playing in a sandbox, an ice-cream salesman approached us. I purchased her a treat, and when I turned to give it to her, I saw her mouth was full of sand. Where I had intended to put a delicacy, she had put dirt.Did I love her with dirt in her mouth? Absolutely. Was she any less of my daughter with dirt in her mouth? Of course not. Was I going to allow her to keep the dirt in her mouth? No way. I loved her right where she was, but I refused to leave her there. I carried her over to the water fountain and washed out her mouth. Why? Because I love her.God does the same for us. He holds us over the fountain. “Spit out the dirt, honey,” our Father urges. “I’ve got something better for you.” And so he cleanses us of filth; immorality, dishonesty, prejudice, bitterness, greed. We don’t enjoy the cleansing; sometimes we even opt for the dirt over the ice cream. “I can eat dirt if I want to!” we pout and proclaim. Which is true—we can. But if we do, the loss is ours. God has a better offer.’

 

 

 

I Heart Joseph Carpenter

It may be a bit far into January to wish everyone a Happy New Year, but as I’ve been absent from blogging since early December, I’ll do so now… I hope you all had a lovely time over Christmas. One of my favourite presents came from my younger brother. I’d been nagging him for weeks and finally on Christmas Day I opened my ‘I Heart Novak Djokovic’ t-shirt! ‘Bit of a cheesy present’ you may say, but as a huge Djokovic fan, I loved it!

 I spent New Years at my friend Katya’s, in England, with her family and our other good friend Coralie. I hadn’t been there v.long when talk turned to my favourite discussion – ‘Which Biblical character would you marry?’ I blogged a few months ago about how my number one choice is always Boaz. Whilst I still think Boaz would make a great husband, I’m starting to see more and more that Joseph Carpenter (Carpenter to separate him from Joseph dreamer…) would also be an excellent choice. 

After my last blog post centred around men not assuming responsibility, I thought it would be nice to write a post contrasting that. Joseph is often the forgotten character of the Nativity story, yet he played a major role in leading his small family. Hurt and humiliation must have occurred at news of Mary’s pregnancy, but he still tried to protect and look after her – 

‘Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.’ – Matthew 1:19

He trusted God and through the scandal took responsibility of Mary and the unborn baby Jesus, though he had no legal or social obligations to do so. He was committed to her and to bringing up the child as his own despite what other people in his community would have said.

When God spoke Joseph took action, he didn’t ask questions or make excuses, he didn’t wait to do it later. He was obedient to God and led his family with God’s will at the centre. 

‘An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” ¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt’ – Matthew 2:13-14 

Joseph, though he is mentioned little in the Bible, is a great example of Godly living, obedience, leadership and responsibility. 

‘I Heart Novak Djokovic’

New Years with Katya and Coralie

 

 

The Incarnation

The coca-cola advert has aired. I’ve ventured to Winter Wonderland, decorated the tree and danced along to Bublé , which only means one thing – Christmas is here! 

My younger brother – a little bit excited about Christmas…

 

 

The HUGE tree outside the Waterfront Winterland.

 

I got my little Santa earrings out of the drawer today. I’m not going to wear them right away, but it was nice to know that it wont be long before they make an appearance again. It might be a bit obvious by now but I LOVE Christmas – the late night shopping, the twinkling fairy lights and especially the cheesy knitted jumpers.

Whilst finding my Christmas earrings and decorating the tree today, I also came across this in J. I. Packer’s ‘Knowing God’…

“But in fact the real difficulty…It lies, not in the Good Friday message of atonement, nor in the Easter message of resurrection, but in the Christmas message of incarnation. The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man…God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby…The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the incarnation.”

Through all the business of the Christmas season it’s easy to overlook just how amazing and incomprehensible the incarnation is. The creator coming to live in this world. Being  fully God and fully man. Becoming a baby, learning to walk and talk. I just can’t get my head around this incredible truth. That Christ would leave Heaven, the perfectness and love that He has known for all of eternity, and humble himself to this world. To live as a man, to be despised and rejected. ‘Nothing in fiction is so fantastic’.