“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”   Matthew 6:10 ESV

I am sure most of you recognize this scripture passage as being the beginning of the Lord’s prayer.  This was when Jesus was teaching the disciples how to pray.  I know that this is how we are taught to pray but I have had a hard time with the whole “thy will be done” thing.  After all when I pray I am asking that my will be done right, it’s about what I want.

Well, that’s how it used to be.  I try to be more concerned with God’s will these days.  I have matured but just a little bit.

I find those four words hard to use at times.  When a loved one is dying, I pray for healing.  I selfishly want to keep that person here with me.  I have a hard time saying “thy will be done”.  I want God to save that person, restore their health and keep them here.  I am working on that.

But many years ago, I learned something.  God’s will for us is better than what we want.  Let me explain.  You see, God has great plans for us.  Sometimes what we want gets in the way of God’s plans.  Years ago God had placed me in a job that originally I truly loved.  However as time went on, I began to want more.  I wanted a more prestigious job with a larger salary.  So I set out to get this particular job.  I did a little research and found that although the job did not require a master’s degree I would need one to be competitive in the job market as most of those applying had master’s degrees.  So I went back to school and got a master’s degree in counseling and family therapy.  Then I began to aggressively apply for this job. I was willing to move and applied in a number of cities.  I was willing to working anywhere that was in a 5 hour radius of my home.  Shortly after completing my master’s degree, I applied and felt sure that I had this job.  I was so confident.  I had done everything required of me.  I had prayed and I just knew that God was going to bless me with this job.  At that time the pay would have been almost double what I was making in my current field.  When I got the call thanking me for interviewing but telling me that the position had been filled by another applicant, I was crushed.  I literally went home and got into bed and cried.  I could not believe that God had crushed my dreams.  I could not believe that after all my hard work and diligence that it was for nothing.  I had an offer to do family therapy with an agency in my town and started doing this in the evenings after my day job.  It was really good income and supplemented my salary at my present job nicely.  I did this for about 6 months and realized that I didn’t care for this job at all.  I quit and wondered why I had even bothered to get that master’s degree.  I felt as though God had allowed me to go through all this for nothing.

I asked God why this was happening.  He simply told me that I was where he wanted me to be and that there was work for me to do there.  I realized that I could witness to people in this job and started doing just that.  I began to appreciate my job much more and God blessed me with several raises.  I got a ten percent raise at this job for getting my master’s and several raises followed that brought my salary up nicely.  After 7 more years in that job, I applied for another job and quickly and easily got hired and made the transition.  God obviously wanted me in this job.  I did my best to honor God in this job and work in a way that showed others God’s love.  Through a series of events, I made an investment that made me a large sum of money and I was able to retire three years early.  Now let me say here that I tithe and I know that this is why God has blessed me financially but we’ll talk more about that later.

God had a plan.  When I became eligible to retire I was 45 years old.  I knew beyond a doubt that God was calling me to retire.  You see God knew that I would have a great niece that would be born in the next year that would need a lot of help.  She started her young life with some serious medical problems and sitters were needed to be in the hospital with her and to care for her at home.

God knew that one year after my niece’s medical problems that my dad was going to have some serious medical issues that after 6 months would take his life.  God also knew that my mom would need round the clock care after my dad passed away.

God knows our future.  He knows what we are going to need ten years down the road.

I also figured out that 15 years after I got my master’s degree God knew that I would meet a christian counselor and that I would discover what had been missing in the counseling that I had done 15 years ago.  When I first got my degree I was counseling without Christ.  I was in a position where I couldn’t use God’s word to help people.  Once I started doing christian counseling, I realized that this was what God intended for me to do with my degree.

Had God given me what I asked for all those years ago, I would have had to work an additional 20 years instead of the 13 years I worked until I retired.  I would have been working four hours away and unable to be here when my family needed me.  The retirement plan would not have been as good as the one I had with my current job and I would have probably needed a second job when I retired.  Garth Brooks had a song called “Unanswered Prayers”.  One of the lines in the song said “sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers”.  This was certainly the case for me.

This has taught me that the plan God has for my life is so much greater than the one I ask for.  God knows what I am going to need and when I am going to need it.  So for this reason, I have learned to pray that His will be done.   I will admit that I still have a hard time praying that His will be done when it comes to a family member that is sick and/or dying.

I have, however, learned to be at peace when I ask God for something and he doesn’t give it to me.  I have learned that if he doesn’t give me what I ask for, it just means that he has something better in store for me.

So today I say Thanks God!  Thank you for planning out my life in a way that is for my good and your glory!

Today if you are upset because God has not given you what you asked for, please trust me on this.  There is a reason that He didn’t answer that prayer.  He knows what we need and His timing is perfect.  Trust in Him and I can promise that you will never be sorry that you did.

Have a great day!