what if?

When we go through a struggle of any nature, whether it be an illness, a major financial setback, loss of a job, or just a difficult situation or decision, probably the first thing we do is to pray and ask God to take it away, send some help, or give some wisdom. That is most likely what we should do, being that God desires us to share with him what is going on in our lives (it's the whole relationship thing). Then, we typically wait to see what God does with our request. Our hope, of course, is that God will answer our prayer exactly as we ask him to, and then we are often disappointed in him if he does not.

But what if...just WHAT IF...God has determined to use our circumstance, whether positive or not, to bring blessing to others first? What would we think of him? How would we respond to that? Would we consider that to be fair? Would it matter if was or wasn't? You see, I think that for many believers, we secretly hold a 'genie-in-a-bottle' view of God where God' purpose is simply to grant our wishes. If he does, great! We'll keep him around. But if he doesn't, we back off in our relationship with him, call his goodness into question and/or just drop him altogether (which, by the way, never fixes the original circumstance).

But would God actually work that way in our lives (to use our circumstance to bring blessing to others and not necessarily to us right away)? Well, didn't he do that very thing through Jesus? Didn't Jesus suffer and die a horrible death for the sake of the rest of us, leaving to our own free choice the possibility that we would simply ignore him anyway? Yes, he did. And the Apostle Paul reminds us that sharing in the sufferings (whatever that may mean for us) of Jesus are a part of how we get to know him better and continue to live out the life of Jesus in our time (check out Philippians 3.10-11).

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had it figured out. In the book of "Daniel" (in the Bible), the king was going to throw them in a furnace for their refusal to worship a statue he had made in his own image. As they were about to be thrown in, they were confident that God would deliver them. But, they were so stern in their faith that they told the king that even if God did not deliver them, they would never bow to any god besides God! Now that's what I call faith! They prayed the prayer and left the rest for God to work out!

Do we trust God like those three dudes? Do we take him at his word to bring good out of bad, even if that means that it may be others who get the good? Would we be okay with it if that's how God chose to answer our prayers? One thing we have to remember is that, as believers, we are all in this boat together so that what blesses one blesses all. If you are in the middle of a struggle right now, keep praying that God will deliver you from it! But at the same time, consider asking God that even if he doesn't deliver you, that he uses your struggle to bless the lives of others. By doing so, you'll be participating in the very character of God.