Why Isn't God Changing My Situation? When Prayers Go Unanswered | Ep. 411

[00:00:14] Welcome to Hustle in Faith. This podcast is dedicated to helping women who want to analyze, apply, and amplify their God-given gifts. We accomplish this by discussing topics such as business, self-improvement, health and beauty, and my random thoughts about life from a Christian perspective. I'm your host, LaTosha Johnson. Have you ever prayed for something over and over again and nothing changed? So you prayed for God to change the situation. You prayed for Him to change the people involved.

[00:00:44] You prayed for another opportunity. You prayed for clarity. You may have even prayed, Lord, just get me out of here, right? And yet you're still there. And so I think this is one of the hardest lessons that we as Christians have to learn is that prayer does not mean that God is automatically going to change our circumstances. Sometimes He changes the situation. Sometimes He changes the people around us.

[00:01:10] Sometimes He changes, you know, sometimes He keeps us in that situation in order to change us, right? And so that last part, keeping us in the situation in order to change us, that's the part we don't always want to hear. I get it. I'm one of those people. But before you ask God to change your situation, ask Him to examine you first, right?

[00:01:35] So when I'm going through a frustrating season, oh my goodness, this past couple of years, but especially this past year, it's been one of my most frustrating seasons. One of the first things that I have to do is look inward first, right? Before I assume that everybody else is the problem, I have to ask myself, God, is there anything in me that needs to change? Am I operating outside of your will? Is there sin that I need to address?

[00:02:06] Is there something that you've already told me to do that I haven't already done? Am I actually applying your word to this situation or am I simply asking you to make the uncomfortable thing disappear, right? And that's an important distinction, okay? Sometimes we're praying, God, get me out of here while God is trying to tell you, hey, I'm trying to grow you up, right?

[00:02:32] And here's something that I've been thinking about a lot lately. Our lives are intertwined. Our lives are intertwined. And so we tend to think and look at frustrating situations only through the lens of how they affect us. Why am I here? Why do I have to deal with this? Why is this taking so long? But if your presence is in, how should I say this?

[00:02:58] What if your presence in the situation isn't only about you, right? What if you're there because somebody needs your encouragement? What if someone needs your wisdom? What if someone has been praying for help and God decided to use you as part of that answer? Think about that. Because I've had more than one situation lately where I didn't want to be in that situation at all.

[00:03:24] But then I ended up meeting someone. Or, yeah, I ended up meeting someone. I ended up helping out other people. And had I not been in that situation that was uncomfortable and the situation that I hated, I never would have been in a position to help those people, right? And so we need to really think about the fact that our lives are so intertwined.

[00:03:48] The place that you're asking God to remove you from could be the very place where he's using you, right? That doesn't mean that every bad situation is something God wants us to remain in indefinitely. Unfortunately, we still need wisdom. We still need discernment, boundaries, and sometimes the courage to leave. But we should at least be willing to ask, God, before I leave this season, what do you want me to learn? And what do you want me to do while I'm here, okay?

[00:04:17] Once we recognize that God may have something for us to learn, we have to make the decision. We can spend the entire season that we don't want to be in angry, right? We can be angry that we're there or we can leverage that season and we can grow. We can learn the skills. We can develop patience. We can strengthen our discipline. We can improve our communication. We can learn how to deal with difficult personalities. That one's hard.

[00:04:45] We could develop better boundaries, become more discerning, learn how to depend on God when everything isn't going the way you planned. And I know that's one thing that I've learned this past season, which I'm going to have a video on that in and of itself. It's just a lot to unpack, okay? But here's the major lesson that I have learned. Complaining does not change the assignment.

[00:05:15] Let me say this for the people in the back. Complaining doesn't change the assignment. And I'm saying this to myself as well, okay? I've gotten frustrated. I've wondered, God, why am I still dealing with this? Where are you at? And it's incredibly difficult not to complain when you're doing something that you don't want to do. You're dealing with people you don't want to deal with. You're living through circumstances that you never in a million years would have chosen.

[00:05:42] But Philippians chapter 2.14 tells us to do everything without grumbling and arguing. That's challenging. I know it is. Because sometimes I don't want another character building experience. I just don't. I want to forego that part of my life. I don't need another character building experience. And sometimes I'm thinking, Lord, I think my character has been built enough, right?

[00:06:10] But apparently God still sees the need for some renovations that need to happen, right? And here's an analogy that keeps coming to mind. I want you to think about making a cake. You've got, and I'm a horrible cook, okay? But I know that to make a cake, you got to have flour. You have to have eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla. And if I handed you all of those ingredients individually, you wouldn't call them a cake, right?

[00:06:37] Some of them wouldn't even taste good by themselves. But once you mix them together, put that mixture into the pan, and then you put that in the oven, here's the important part. You can't rush the baking process. You can't rush putting that in the oven, right? So if the recipe says that the cake needs to be in the oven for 35 minutes, and you decide to pull the cake out after 15 minutes because you're tired of waiting,

[00:07:06] you haven't accelerated the process. In fact, you've actually ruined the cake, right? You've ruined the cake. The outside may look like it's coming together, but the inside isn't ready yet, right? And I wonder how often we do that with God. We say, God, I'm ready. And God knows we're not. God, I've learned the lesson. And God knows there's still something that he's developing. And you're screaming, God, get me out of here.

[00:07:35] But maybe God's saying, hey, you're not done baking yet, okay? There's still some baking left that I need to do with you. Romans chapter 5 tells us that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. So in other words, God can use the heat. He can use that difficult coworker, that unexpected career change. He can use delays, disappointment. He can use that season that you never wanted to be in in the first place.

[00:08:04] And individually, those experiences may not make any sense, okay? A lot of times they're not going to make sense. But God sees the finished product. And so one thing I do want to make sure that we are clear on is that I don't want you to confuse surrendering with giving up, okay? Me telling you that you need to surrender doesn't mean becoming passive. It doesn't mean tolerating abuse.

[00:08:31] It doesn't mean refusing to change circumstances that you have the wisdom and ability to change. What surrender means, it's essentially you saying, God, as long as I'm here, I'm going to let you use this and let you use me, right? That's totally different. Instead of waking up every morning thinking, you know, I really hate this. I hate this job. I hate these people. Start asking yourself this instead. What can I learn today?

[00:09:01] Who can I help today? What character trait is God developing in me today? And what skill can I take with me in this season? Surrender doesn't mean becoming passive. It doesn't mean tolerating abuse. It doesn't mean, you know, it doesn't mean refusing to change circumstances that you have the wisdom and ability to change.

[00:09:24] Surrender means you essentially saying, God, as long as I'm here, I'm going to let you use this. And use me in this situation, right? That's totally different. So instead of waking up every morning thinking, you know, I really hate this. Start asking yourself, what can I learn today? Who can I help today? What character trait is God developing in me? And what skill can I take with me when this season ends?

[00:09:53] And most importantly, how can I honor God while I'm here? Because eventually the season is going to change. And when it does, you don't want to leave it merely relieved that it's over. You want to leave different from the person who entered it. Maybe you've been praying, God, change my situation. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that prayer.

[00:10:16] But maybe something else we should be adding to it is that, God, if you're not changing this situation yet, please show me what you're doing through it. Show me what I need to learn. Show me what I need to grow, how to serve, what I need to stop doing, what I need to start doing. And just give me the strength to go through this season without allowing my frustration to transform me into something that I don't want to become.

[00:10:43] Because sometimes the breakthrough isn't God opening the door. Sometimes the breakthrough is realizing, hey, I can have peace even before the door opens. And maybe that's part of what God's been trying to teach us all along, right? So if you're in a frustrating season right now, I see you. I get it. Don't automatically assume that you're forgotten.

[00:11:08] In fact, don't assume that nothing is happening simply because nothing appears to be changing. And I want you to make sure that you ask God what he's doing. Pay attention. Apply his word. Make whatever adjustments he's showing you. And keep growing. Please keep growing. Because you may just still be in the oven. And when God decides you're ready for whatever he's preparing you for next, you'll understand why he didn't take you out too soon.

[00:11:42] Thanks so much for listening to this episode. If you enjoy listening to Hustle in Faith and would like to support the show, please consider sharing it with your friends, rate or leave a review, donate, or make a purchase at our shop Starring You Crew. Remember, if you're everything to everyone, you risked being no one. You never know who you will inspire. See you in the next episode.