When God Does Not Fix It

The most common prayer is when we are in need, when we beseech our Lord to fix our problem. We entreat with many pleadings, that God would change our circumstances. There are many times when Christ does intervene, He takes his wrench and turns the rusty bolt and stops the problem. But what about those times when He doesn’t fix it? What are we as Christians suppose to do if His answer is no answer and He refuses to use His wrench?  

This is when the prayer of serenity typically is invoked, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” (Reinhold Niebuhr). Or the parable of the persistent widow is used, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.  And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1-8). Both are great responses to when God doesn’t fix it, to surrender to His Will or Persist in Prayer tell its fixed.  

The question is, how do you know which response to choose when God isn’t fixing your problem? Do you persist in prayer or accept what you can’t change it? One could be inclined to persist in prayer for a long time, believing like the Widow, at some point their prayer will be answered. Then there is the possibility that few want to explore, that God said no, that He isn’t going to fix it, because your current circumstance is part of God’s mysterious plan, “Then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.” (Ecclesiastes 8:17).  U

How are we to respond to when God does not fix it? My suggestion is to lean on the Holy Spirit, persist in prayer and changing what you can, but if these fail accept you cannot change it and that God knows better, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts,” (Isaiah 55:7-9), and “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.” And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile” (1 Corinthians 3:18-20). So persist in prayer, surrender and accept that God knows best. The first step is easiest because we might get what we want, a fix it, but the second stage of surrender is harder and the final stage of letting God be God requires we accept that He is Wiser, Greater, and Higher than we are. We must be humble when God does not fix it. We must be understanding that He sees something in our current struggle, disappointment and difficulty that we do not. We must trust Christ, and not act like a child to a parent when we don’t get our way. Spiritual maturity is to trust God no matter what happens, and when we don’t understand, being thankful He does and that while we feel kept in the dark, He is working for our good.

Persist, Accept, Trust. Amen.