What We Want Is Not Always What God Has In Mind

As Christians we can be biased sometimes. We often insist on God doing something that we want. We even claimed that what we want is what God wants. But what if what we want is not what God has in mind no matter how right we think it is?

There was an interesting case in the Bible. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was punished by King Nebuchadnezzar for not following the King’s rules where everyone has to worship His gods. These three men were known to be upright, uncorrupted and good leaders for the people. Their enemies were trying to bring them down but they couldn’t find any flaws, the only flaw was they refused to worship the gods that the King worshipped. Thus, they use it to get them. They accused these three men for violating the law that instructed everyone to worship the gods and brought the case to the King.

The King was very upset and he questioned these men, what did they say?

“16  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. 17  If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. 18  But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.” (Daniel 3: 16 -18 – NLT)

Yes, they were sticking up to what they believe. They believe that God can save them but even if He didn’t, they still would not server the King’s gods or worship the gold statue he has set. In the end, they were thrown to the fire and God saved them. Happy Ending.

But what if, God didn’t save them. Would they lose faith in Him? I don’t think so. They have stated it clearly, they knew their lives were at stake and still they choose to believe in Him. God can but if God is doing something else, they still trust Him.

How many of us, praying so hard for God to answer it. We have the faith that God will answer our prayers according to what we want. Having faith is good. Believing that God can answer your prayers is powerful but one thing that we all need to learn is, God sometimes have another thing in His mind that might be different than what we want or what we believe He wants.

When that happens, would we still believe in Him?