Just Trust Me
In high school I was a peer tutor in the special needs class at the school. In that class I learned numerous things, but most importantly I made a best friend named Michael. Michael has Downs Syndrome. He can communicate well and tell you what he needs, but he doesn’t comprehend things all too well. Every day in that class Michael would be rewarded with a Mello Yellow at the end of the day if he was good. Since me and Michael were BFFs I was the one that took care of him that class period, which means that I was the one that took him a Mellow Yellow(and only mellow yellow because he didn’t like Sprite and the other drinks for different reasons he wasn’t allowed to have). So one day like normal we went to get the drink, but to my surprise when I pressed the button the screen read “Sold Out”. Michael looked at me and said what he always said when we were getting a Mellow Yellow “Zaaaach, mellow yellow”. This meant, “Come on bro I’ve been good get me my drink and let’s move on with our lives”. What Michael didn’t comprehend, that I did, is that the drink machine was out of the drink. So when I tried to tell him it was empty and that we would have to go back to class all he heard was “I’m not going to get you a mellow yellow”. He didn’t see that it wasn’t me that was preventing him from having his treat but it was the drink machine. He didn’t understand that I would get him when I could as soon as it was refilled, all he knew is that this guy he thought was his friend wouldn’t get him the drink he was told he would get. So he kept saying “mellow yellow” over and over, and I kept telling him that I couldn’t get him one. At one point he just stopped asking me and looked at me with this look that made me want to cry. It was a look of hurt, not physical but a kind of betrayal hurt, a look that said “Why won’t you get me the drink?! I’ve done all you’ve asked me to, I’ve held up to my end of the bargain and it was your turn to deliver and you didn’t. Don’t you love me?” Of course I loved him and I wanted so badly to get him the Mellow Yellow or any other drink for that matter. But because the machine was empty and I knew the other drinks weren’t good for him all I could do was look at him and tell him that I know it seems unfair and I know he had been good but that he would just have to trust me and I would get him one tomorrow.
God gives GOOD gifts
Isn’t this the exact same way we treat God when we want something? Just think about it, you’ve been wanting something for a long time, a car, a new job, more money, and right when you think you have earned it or think you should get it, but you don’t and you look to God and ask “Why!? I thought you loved me? I thought you wanted what was good for me? So why can’t I have this”? We ask questions like this all the time. I mean if Matthew 7:7-11 is true then shouldn’t God give me what I am asking for? Here’s the problem, verse 7 says “Ask and it will be given to you” but that’s where we like to stop reading and we get this idea that God is some vending machine that should give us what we want. But if you keep reading you will see that in verse 11 it says “If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give GOOD things to those that ask Him” The important part of this passage is not that God gives us what we ask for, but instead that he gives us what is GOOD. We are screwed up humans, but yet we know not to give a gift to someone that could cause them harm or put them in danger. We know not to give a toddler a steak knife, that’s just ridiculous. Jesus’ point here is that if humans are messed up and know what is good to give and what is not, then God definitely knows what is good for us. Parents always say, we want the best for you, and so does God, and even more so. So maybe the reason you haven’t gotten that promotion, that raise, that new car, that new girlfriend, or whatever it is you want is because it’s not the best thing for right now. Maybe if you aren’t ready for this thing you want like you think you are, or maybe God knows that if you got it right now it wouldn’t turn out for the best like it would if you got it later.
It was going to fit!
But sometimes it has nothing to do with the timing of when we want something but just the plain fact that sometimes what we want isn’t best for us. For example there’s a toddler who has a metal knife. And toddlers love to fit things into other things, so the toddler sees the wall outlet and sees that the knife would fit perfectly in there so he/she starts walking over to the outlet. Now dad of the year is there and sees what’s about to go down. He has two choices; let his child put the knife in the outlet and most likely die or to grab it out of the child’s hand. Being the loving protective father he is he takes the knife from the child. Now to us and the dad the dad just did the best and right thing. But the child freaks out, starts crying and throws and fit. The child looks at the dad with a look of “What are you doing!? That was going to be so fun; it was going to fit in the slot perfectly, why would you stop me from doing what I want? Don’t you love me?” The toddler’s view is limited, from its point of view everything was going to work out fine and dandy and the dad was stopping it from doing what it wanted. But the dad knows what would really happen. He could see beyond the point of his child and see how much damage the “fun” was going to cause the child he loves. He knew if he allowed his child to do that it would only bring it pain, strife and possibly death. So it’s not that the father doesn’t want to give his child what it wanted but he wants to give it what’s good, and best for the child and allowing the child to put the knife in the electrical outlet was not the best thing for the child.
Maybe we have this whole thing backwards
Maybe we have this whole “good things” thing mixed up, upside down, and backwards. Maybe we need to realize that like Michael it’s not that God isn’t ever going to give us our mellow yellow, but that it’s not the right time for us to get it. And that if we just trust him and wait on him to do what He has promised which is to “give good gifts” He will deliver. Or maybe it is that God is not going to give you what you want. Maybe God is trying to keep you from putting the knife in the electrical outlet. Maybe you only have a limited view. You see what looks fun and good and you think it will all work out for the best. But God’s view isn’t limited; he looks beyond and can see what would really happen. So maybe by not allowing you to have what you want he is protecting you from what He knows isn’t good for you. I know there are things we want; I wanted to be in the NBA, but let’s be real that’s not going to happen. Why? I don’t know but I know God does, and maybe it’s because that’s not what would be best for me. God knows the plans he has for you “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for a hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11). So maybe if we stopped focusing on what we want and instead on what God has planned for us then we would be less upset at not getting those things because we realize that they aren’t what is good for us. God loves to give us what we want. But only when they come in His time, and when they are good gifts. If we trust in Him and truly want what God wants for us then we will never end up disappointed because we will know that if we didn’t get it then it must have not been the best thing, because that’s what God wants for us.
May you be blessed beyond belief. May you receive in abundance what it is you want, but only if those things come from the Father who knows how to give good gifts. May you no longer desire the things the world has for and instead desire what God has planned for you. May you stop listening to your own selfish sinful desires and listen to the God of the universe who is saying “I know what’s good for you, just trust me”.
-Zach Hollifield