When God Does Not Do What You Want
You have probably had it happen to you. You make plans for things to go certain way, and then the plans fall apart. You have dreams of what is next for your family, but the dreams seem to not come true. As a leader, you have a vision for what you want to see in the future, but roadblocks tend to continually get in the way. Things do not always go according to plan.
At the writing of these words, we are almost two full years into the Covid-19 pandemic. If we have learned anything during this time it is to hold on to your plans loosely. Things may change in 20 minutes.
This can be a frustrating way to live and lead. You feel like you are spinning your wheels and going nowhere fast. And, if you are like me, out of your frustration you are asking questions about why this is happening.
If we are honest, sometimes our failure to execute is our own fault. Maybe we did not lead as well as we could. Possibly our communication lacked what it needed to attract followers to the cause. We might have had great ideas, but we did not budget appropriately and schedule the time. A goal might not be reached because of inconsistent execution. Or, maybe, there is some sin issue in our lives that keeps us from being successful. Stepping back from our frustrations and asking the hard questions is essential to moving forward.
What if, however, none of these things is the problem. What if we look at the big picture and it seems like we can only come up with one answer: God is not doing what you want Him to do. You are trusting Him. You even feel like you are in His will. But you keep coming up against a brick wall that keeps you from moving forward. Now what?
The Bible gives us some possible things that might be going on in times like these. Although this list is certainly not exhaustive, here are some thoughts that might help when looking back on frustrating seasons.
Divine Protection
It may be that the reason your dreams do not come true is because God knows that they are actually nightmares! The very thing you think you want could be the thing that would bring unnecessary pain to your life. You see the delay as a loss to your family or ministry. God sees it as a lifeline keeping you from what just might pull you under.
This was true in His dealings with the children of Israel. He knew that if He allowed them to just steamroll in to the Promised Land all at once, it would be disastrous. They had some growing up to do before they were ready for that kind of responsibility. You can hear God’s divine protection in the statement in Deuteronomy 7:22. “The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you.” No one likes to have to wait. But in this case, seems like a pretty good idea. God knew what He was doing.
I learned this lesson as a leader through a time of disappointment. A local businessman promised to give our church a building. It would be the perfect place for a youth center. We had multiple conversations about how the building would be given to us once all of the factors lined up. That was all my mind needed! The ideas started flowing and our team began to dream about how that space would revolutionize our ministry. Until it didn’t…
Weeks became months. Months dragged from one in to the other. Every once in a while the businessman would contact us to say things were still being worked out. For the most part, it was just silence. Then, the whole thing fell apart. The dream was dead. Looking back, I think I took it harder than I realized at the time. This meant our youth ministry would not move forward like we would have liked. It probably meant that I was not a very good leader. I had let the church and especially the board down by not making this real estate miracle happen. The truth was, through no fault of his own, this businessman could not follow through on what he had intended to do to bless the church. It was just a bust.
What we now realize is that what looked like a tremendous disappointment, was actually God divine protection. We did not realize at the time the repairs that the facility needed. The roof and HVAC alone would have put a financial straitjacket on us. And, had we been tied down with that property, we would not have been in a position just a few years later to move on the things God was calling us to do.
Somewhere, in what I thought was a story of my failure and busted promises, God was protecting His church for the future. We learned a valuable lesson about trusting Him, even when things are not moving in the direction you thought they would. Your disappointing period might actually be divine protection.
More content is being added weekly to this blog considering what God might be doing when He does not do what you want. New content coming February 1 — Spiritual Conflict
