Do you want a free vacation to Hawaii?

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”  James 4:13-15 (ESV)

For me it is very very hard to hand over everything!  I know we are suppose to but it is so hard!

Recently a young friend I knew died.  He died due to a heart defect.  My prayer was that he would be healed and live, yet he passed away.  This person was a believer in Jesus Christ and led many to know Jesus.  Based on his fruits I would say that this was a man of God; yet when it comes to what I wanted for him which was to live, it was his time to go and live with the Lord.

Paul describes that how to live is being like Christ, ‘yet to die is gain’:

…regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose. As long as I’m alive in this body, there is good work for me to do. If I had to choose right now, I hardly know which I’d choose. Hard choice! The desire to break camp here and be with Christ is powerful. Philippians 1:20-22 (The Message)

If I believe this passage or if I believe the Bible, I start to think about my prayers for this man or for so many others.  Children, parents, friends, and the list goes on.  The list is not just for death but also for everything such as healings, mercy, etc.  I try to direct God in my request yet I see that answers are not answered all the time from my perspective.  What should I do?

The other day I was talking with a friend and he looked at it this way:

“I wonder if someone could have a 100% paid trip with no strings attached to Hawaii or a trip they would have to pay for that is not as nice of a place, what would they pick?”  This seems like a stupid question.  If I could get past the idea that this trip was not a rip off and there were really no strings attached, I would pick the trip to Hawaii.

When I answered “Hawaii, of course”, this friend stated to me, “It is amazing how we try to pray someone away from Hawaii and ask them to pay for the trip rather then letting them go to Hawaii and be happy about it.”

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV)

I know I should trust in God and I do.  The hard part is knowing that He knows the bigger picture and I have to trust in Him.  God has not always answered  my prayers the way I wanted, and looking back on just my life I can see how God’s wisdom out weighed mine. If  He would have answered some of my prayers the way I wanted, I would be in really bad shape!

Have you ever thanked God for not answering some of your prayers?  Do you trust God in everything? (No) Have you asked God to help you trust Him in everything?  How can you grow in God?  Are you willing to let His Will be done?

In Memory of a good friend!

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