Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6

There’s been a song featured on my favorite music streaming channel lately that I just can’t get out of my head. Specifically, the chorus. It goes like this:

"But what if you know something I don't? 
What if you will something I won't?
If you don't give me what I want
But you give me what I need
Is that enough to believe, believe, believe, believe in your love?"
(Believe, Blessing Offor)

Sibling in Christ, sometimes God wills what we won’t. Sometimes we don’t get what we want. Sometimes we do get what we don’t want.

Either way we can end up feeling disappointed or frustrated by the outcome. Disappointment and frustration can lead us to wonder, “Why is this happening? Where is God’s love in this?”.

And sweet friend, God knows we wonder. He knows every thought and every feeling we have and this is why He tells us not to lean on our own understanding and to lean on Him instead. You see, learning to focus less on what we do or don’t want and more on what God knows we actually need makes a real difference in our outlook on life and in how we handle those times when things aren’t going the way we’d like them to go.

When I look back on my life, I can see that many times when I thought I wasn’t getting what I wanted, or wasn’t getting it quickly enough, what I thought I wanted wasn’t actually what I really, truly, deeply wanted anyway. That relationship, that possession, that recognition, that position that I wanted so badly turned out to only be an icon or a placeholder for what I really wanted: to have a purpose, to be loved, to feel secure. All of the wants I truly had are wants that can’t be satisfied by relationships or recognition or any earthly possession. They are those things that only God provides.

I’m writing this today as much to remind myself as to remind you too:

Dear heart, God knows what we truly need and He is too good to give us empty fillers. He is too loving to supply us with that which is only temporary.

Beloved, the more we come to understand His love and His ways, the greater appreciation we gain for the unanswered prayers and for the “not nows” and “not yets” He sometimes sends our way. It’s a slow lesson, but I’m learning that I don’t have to understand everything that happens and I don’t have to fret about situations or things I don’t want but have somehow received or that I do want and have not attained – and neither do you.

All we need to remember is that God is good and that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him. His good goes far beyond the shortsightedness of our human eyes. His working hand stretches across a perfect plan that spans all of known time and eternity too. We need only to trust God and lean on His ways instead of our own.