Glory to God
For Your ways are not mine.
Glory to God
For Your thoughts are divine.
Glory to God
That my life belongs to You.
Glory to God
That Your word holds true.
Glory to God
Even when I don’t get my way.
Glory to God
Even when the blessings seem delayed.
Glory to God
Let Your will be done.
Glory to God
Jesus, that you and I are one.
Glory to God
Forever and ever.
Glory to God
Through every endeavor.
Glory to God!
Devotional: Post 4 in the “Faith Like Hannah” series
This is by far the hardest of messages. I feel like God really has been speaking to me in my own personal walk with Him about this post, and I pray that you hear His heart for you, as His daughters–His children.
Several times through my journey with infertility I asked this question to my friends, to God… What do I do if Your answer is “No”? Often, as Christians, we believe that God will “give us the desires of our hearts,” (Psalm 37:4) and while this scripture is true, I believe we take this out of context. If the desires of our hearts are not inline with the will or plan that God has for us, He will not bless it. God only desires to give us the things that will be good for us and are within His plan for our lives which is why we must be in alignment with Him so that we desire the things that He wants for our lives. I think that it is really easy for us to say we have faith in God’s power, but then, we do everything within our power to “force” the desires of our hearts to come to pass. We need to learn to lift the control over what we want God to do for us and to focus on what we can do for His kingdom.
Hannah sets the example for us of lifting our own control over what we want. She knew who she was and her value to God when she went to pray her “vow” at the tabernacle, but she also knew that ultimately the child He would grant her would not be her own. This is why Hannah had the courage to give up the son she so desperately longed for and prayed for because in the depths of her spirit, she knew that her life and Samuel’s life was not her own. She understood that they both belonged to God. (1 Samuel 1: 26-27)
To be a child of God means that we are no longer our own. When we enter the kingdom of God as His inheritor, we must realize our lives now belong to Him. (In reality, we already belong to Him even before salvation. He is our creator.) What better life is there, than the life God has planned for you? He wants to give us our desires, but He desires to give us the things that are healthy for our body, soul, and spirit. So, when God tells us “no” to something we long for, it is important for us to remember that the “no” comes out of His desire to give you what He has planned for your life.
When I heard this from Him during my walk with infertility, I was so scared to give up the control over getting pregnant because I believed that if I gave up the control then it just wouldn’t happen. I believed in this moment that God was telling me “no”.
So what do we do when He tells us “no”?
We praise Him for His goodness. We praise Him for His faithfulness in our lives. We praise Him for the blessings He has given us. We praise Him for His heart for our eternal souls. We praise Him simply for just being God Almighty! (We, especially, need to praise Him when we don’t “feel” like it) When we get a hold of this, there are no limits to what God will and then can do in our lives because our praise and obedience to Him releases His power within our circumstances.
When we pray and enter into the presence of our Father, we need to be sure we are not always asking something from Him. God does want to give us the things we desire, but not at the expense of our relationship with Him. When we pray, we need to acknowledge who He is, and we need to ultimately desire His kingdom come and His will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Jesus gave us the answer of how to pray to God, and there is a reason why the Lord’s prayer starts with “Heavenly Father, Hallowed be your name, Your Kingdom come, and Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven…” This part of the prayer is the most important which is why it is first. It shows us how to organize our priorities which is to make it all about Him and not ourselves. Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” We must make God and our relationship with Him first in our lives and within our thoughts and actions. When we pray His will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven it is the most powerful part of our prayer because it invites God into the situation and then it allows for Him to move.
So when or if you are not given the desires of your heart and you feel hurt, sad, and not important, please know that God DOES love you, you ARE important to Him–so important to Him that He protects you even from yourself, and His Holy Spirit is within you to provide you grace, support, comfort, and peace to endure the disappointment. You should then pray for the Holy Spirit to heal your heart and to fill the void of this loss with God’s love, grace, and divine favor and for Him to send you the desire to want what He wants for you.
To sum up this series…
In order to have faith like Hannah…
- We MUST know who we are in Christ, and we need to allow His spirit and His word to build our faith.
- We must praise and worship God when we are walking out the trials and struggles within our life.
- We must believe in the power of God’s name, and we must speak His name and His word over our lives and our circumstances.
- Lastly, we must desire His will above our own.
I really hope you hear the heart of your Heavenly Father, and that His words will be seeds planted within your spirit so that He can build deep roots in order to prepare you for what is to come.
Let me pray for you:
Heavenly Father, glory is your name, and your presence is the most precious blessing that we could ever ask for. Lord, I pray that you hear the desires of your daughter’s hearts. Please bless them with a child, or whatever it is they are longing for. Lord encourage them, send your favor over them, and give them your divine peace and joy while they are waiting for your move. I come against the enemy that would try to steal their peace, destroy their joy with doubt, unbelief, frustration, anger, depression, and hopelessness. We bind up the plans of the enemy and call them null and void through the power of the blood of Jesus that flows over us. Lord, ultimately, we desire your will, and not our own, to be done. Let Your kingdom come, and all for Your glory, Your honor, and for Your praise. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Scriptures to study:
Songs of Worship:
Thy Will Be Done by Hillary Scott
At the Cross by Hillsong Worship
The Crimson Robe 