God's Provision in Prayer and Our Stewardship
Exploring the Christian's Responsibility in Stewarding Answered Prayers
If you’ve spent any time scrolling through my Instagram or hanging out with me in person you have definitely heard a story or seen a photo of my sweet, quirky mini goldendoodle pup Finley. When we brought that three pounds of fluffy cuteness into our lives three years ago my life was instantly filled with more laughter, puppy snuggles, and a new daily ritual of going for a walk.
My pup begs and pleads for walks no matter the weather. She is a pretty smart dog but she hasn’t caught on yet to stop begging when it feels like it’s a thousand degrees in middle Tennessee or when dark storm clouds are rolling in and a summer thunderstorm is minutes away.
A few weeks ago, she was sitting patiently by her leash staring at me with her big, brown eyes. Tale wagging, switching eye contact with me and her leash, with a sweet slow little whine. I could practically hear her saying, “Come on, let’s go for a walk!”
I looked at the weather and the time—it was mid afternoon and almost 90 degrees. I wanted to just say, “trust me, you don’t really want this.” But instead, I thought, why not? Let’s get out there and get sweaty.
Not even halfway through our walk my dog was panting, pulling her leash to slip off the road and into neighbor’s yards where she would settle down into a patch of grass in the shade and stare up at me as if she didn’t ask for this.
In that moment, I was instantly reminded of my own prayer life.
How many times have I begged God for something and when I’m given the very thing I asked for I suddenly don’t want it anymore. Maybe it’s more difficult than I thought it would be, maybe it’s taking longer than I thought, maybe it requires more of a sacrifice than I imagined.
Or maybe, I’m waiting for God to respond to my repeated asks and confused by the silence.
Maybe when we pray we see sunny skies out of the window when really God is aware that once we’re out there, it’s not going to feel so great walking around in the sun in the middle of the day. What if His “refusal” to respond is protection and care?
I tugged my dog along the rest of our walk. When we made it back she dramatically sprawled out on our cold wood floors. I gave her a piece of frozen watermelon (one of her favorite summer treats!) and kept meditating on this metaphor for prayer.
The verse Psalm 37:4 was on my mind, “Delight yourself in the Lord,
And He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.”
My prayer life can feel like petitioning the Lord for what I think I want. And I think He loves to hear those petitions because of what we are telling Him about Himself when we ask, we are repeatedly saying, “I believe you can & I believe you want to.”
But I also know that Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.”
When my prayers go unanswered for a time frame I deem as “too long” or when the answer seems confusing or not the way I imagined, I have to rely on a God who always has more understanding than I do and who I can trust even when it doesn’t make sense to me.
I started to wonder if there are moments in our prayer lives where we are begging for something but God can see there is a reason we are not ready to steward it. Even in those moments where it feels like He is against us, as if He is withholding something good from us, what if He is really so persistently for us that His silence is consistent protection, provision, and care?
My dog could manage a midday walk in the heat of summer, so I allowed it. I felt like this was a picture of how God will give us our desires even when we cannot know the fullness of what we are asking for. My dog couldn’t check the weather like I could but soon her paws were on hot pavement and she’d forgotten about our eye contact exchange by her leash a few minutes before.
Instead of telling her “I told you so” (yes, I know she’s a dog and couldn’t understand me anyways) I gave her a treat. I walked with her the whole time. Again, I think this is God’s response to us in (dare I say it!) some of our immature prayer requests. He agrees to be present with us, to endure with us, and then sweetens the deal for us just because He loves us.
Maybe, there are moments when God desires to give us the good things we are asking for but He doesn’t. In the middle of one of those moments it can feel like brutal rejection. Is His love for me really there if His provision in prayer isn’t clear in the way I hoped?
I don’t think God feels silent or distant to us because He doesn’t love us and doesn’t want to answer our prayers in the way we pictured. I think if He were to give us those desires or secret petitions sometimes He waits because He can already see a fuller picture than we can.
Would we be ready to steward the very thing we are praying for?
Are we willing to finish what would be started if our “ask” was immediately responded to with an enthusiastic “yes!” from God?
