What Do You Do, When God Don’t Live Up to YOUR Expectations?

[Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks, PsyD]

What do you do? What do you do, when God doesn’t answer your prayers, the way YOU want Him to? What do you do? Do you accept HIS WILL, HIS WAY, HIS TIMING, to give you what you want, or do you get angry, become afraid, and run off in a cave like Elijah did, when HIS expectations were not satisfied to HIS liking (1 Kings 19), after such great victory through God (1 Kings 18:16-45) too? Ask yourself these questions and really think about your answers! Go before God and let Him minister to you; let Him show you YOU, then repent (if you need to, for not accepting God’s answers), then don’t behave like that anymore.

Confession: I can identify with Elijah all too well; I use to be like him. I used to get upset and have a temper tantrum, when God did not answer the way I expected Him to. And just like Elijah, I have asked God to just let me die; that was when I was REALLY going through rough times – not too long ago either! But THANK God, He didn’t listen:)! I now accept the way God answers my prayers because I know His way is better than mine, and understand that before the foundations of the world, God choose me to be adopted through Jesus, and He has a plan for my life; I say “Yes,” to God’s plan, therefore, I say “Yes,” to the way He execute His plan, for my life!

God wants to restore you, just as He restored Elijah; just like He restored me. Will you allow God to restore you? Will you? If you are willing to allow God to show you YOU, as I stated before, then answer the questions I asked earlier, and let God restore you. The teaching on “The Restoration of Elijah,” will show you that Elijah ran away and hid in the cave, because what HE EXPECTED did not happen, and it will show you how God restored him.

Yes, we are to let our request be made known to God, and expect Him to answer, BUT, IF God doesn’t answer like WE expect Him to, we MUST accept His answer, TRUSTING that He KNOWS BEST, what we need!! Not, get upset with God, shut down, and get angry with EVERYONE around us; this will not change the situation, and will DEFINITELY NOT make God change His mind!! I know, because none of my temper tantrums, caused God to change His mind; even when I asked God to let me die, that didn’t change His mind:)!! We just MUST go through our processes and remember, we are NOT alone, but God is with us – He promised to NEVER leave us, nor forsake us, and God keeps His promises (click here for encouraging Scriptures)!! We just have to trust God IN THE PROCESS; God knows what He is doing!! Also, God’s ways are NOT our ways, and His thoughts are NOT our thoughts, so of course He will NOT do things our way (Isaiah 55:8-9); we are to conform to God, God does not conform to us – God is NOT a puppet on a string, that we make do what we want!!

Remember, there is more than one way to solve a problem. In the nature, there are multiple ways to arrive at the answer, to any math problem. Therefore, don’t limit God; don’t put God in a box and say, “This is how my problem NEEDS to be worked out.” Or think, “I want it worked out like this!” NO! Let God be God and accept the way He works things out for you; God KNOWS more and SEES, further than we do; God knows what the future holds for us and ALREADY has a plan and purpose for our future! Will you allow God to restore you today! Will you?

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God’s Blessings,

Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks