Faith Without Results.
This one too is inspired by one of Lana's most recent posts, “Am i praying to the wrong God?”
Sometimes we do everything we're told is “right.” We pray. We show up to church. We give, we serve, we fast, we wait. We try to be good, patient, kind, honest. And yet, life doesn't soften. It doesn't open. It doesn't reward us the Way we imagine faith should.
Sometimes it feels like every prayer we whisper gets lost in the ceiling.
Sometimes it feels like blessings miss us on purpose.
Sometimes trying harder only makes the struggle heavier.
And then there's that painful question we don't like to admit out loud:
“WHY DO GOOD PEOPLE SUFFER WHILE PEOPLE WHO LIE, DESTROY, AND HURT OTHERS SEEM TO THRIVE?”
No one teaches us how to hold that kind of confusion. It can shake the core of what we believe about God, about fairness, about ourselves.
But here's something I'm learning slowly. Imperfectly:
God doesn't always show up in the way we expect, at the time we want, or through the places we think He should. Sometimes all the external actions; the churches, the offerings, the routines, make us forget the quiet truth God meets us within, not always around us.
Maybe unanswered prayers prayers aren't punishments.
Maybe delayed answers aren't rejection. Maybe the silence isn't abandonment, but preparation.
Life isn't a score board of “good verse bad” or “deserving verse undeserving.” If it was, we would have figured everything out already.
Some of the strongest souls i know are the ones who had everything go wrong for years before one thing finally opened. And when it opened, it made sense of everything they cried over, everything they didn't understand, everything they thought was wasted.
I don't have all the answers….none of do. But i believe this:
Sometimes suffering isn't proof that God has forgotten you. Sometimes it's evidence that your story is still being written.
Maybe the real question isn't, “why isn't anything changing?” Maybe it's, “what is this season shaping inside me?”
Even when life looks unfair.
Even when efforts seem pointless.
Even when nothing makes sense.
Please remember this:
YOU ARE NOT INVISIBLE. YOUR PRAYERS ARE NOT USELESS. YOUR GOODNESS IS NOT WASTED.
Safe place means we don't pretend everything is perfect…
We just dont give up on hope, even when it hurts.
You know, I feel it's wrong to expect something out of prayers.
Sure we pray asking for things to go better, whatever better means, but I feel... The action of asking is already enough.
Like there is a all powerful out there, I can confide in, confess, tell him what I want, and that's enough.
Treat prayer as a transaction, you'll only look for the outcome.
And usually while blaming the world, so much greater good, things you didn't ask for but was given, go by without you noticing.