Matthew 11:6

“And blessed is he who is not offended because of me.”

Too many times I've heard the devastating story of someone praying for something fervently day in and day out and never getting what they prayed for, leading them to there unbelief in God. It's a tragic story to see such a potential heart be turned away due to lack of understanding in God's plan. I went through a period in my life where I was not given what I asked for and I prayed hard. I chose anger and disobedience to comfort the pain of being ignored. I was weak and hurt and hated that God wouldn't come to me in my time of weakness After getting kicked around back and forth by my sins and the sins of the world I found myself screaming out to God once again. I came back to Him and found the peace I had once had. Although having that peace the unanswered prayer that troubled me for so long stung in the back of my mind. Instead of running away with anger, I ran to Him for answers. I realized that I knew the answer all along and only needed to look at the situation in a different way. He had been giving it to me but I was not mature enough to see with the right perspective. Often times we want an answer from the Lord, and he gives us exactly what we ask for, just hardly in the way we expect. It's not that he gives us encrypted messages, it's usually that our hearts are not in the right place to understand. It can be compared to a carpenter and his wood. The wood must be taken from its comfort, shaved and cut down to where it is standing naked and vulnerable into the hands of the carpenter, sanded, polished, and eventually assembled into a functional piece of furniture. If the wood were to run away at the point of being vulnerable and naked it wood never know what it's beautiful purpose was for, leaving him alone and naked for the world to scar and beat. I was that wood that ran away while I was naked and I was scarred. But Christ took me back in and sanded them away to use me once more. When I come across a situation or a heart break where all I want to do is run, I will remember to fall on my knees and not let my feet take me anywhere but His word. In applying this, when I call home and here the troubles of my fellow loved ones I will not look to God and ask why, I will look to myself and ask, what am I supposed to learn?