Answer Envy

"How wonderful!" I exclaimed. "I am so happy for you!"

That's what I said when friends of ours sold their house after it had been on the market for 20 days. 

To them it had been a long time. 

On the day she announced to us that her home sported a sold sign, our house had been for sale not for 20 days, but for 20 months. Although I was genuinely thrilled for her, I was also a tad green with envy. 

I refer to it as "answer envy." It is that "poor me" mentality that creeps into my heart when God says "yes" to someone else when my answer is a "no" or "not now." 

As a child, I was envious of the kids who came from two-parent homes, while mine was town apart by divorce. In high school, I longed for the other girls' looks, clothes, boyfriends. In college, I envied my married friends. And once married, I struggled with miscarriages and slapped a smile on my face at baby showers. 

The cure for answer envy is not easy. It involves a shift in perspective. So instead of begging God for a quick fix, I ask myself questions like, "What is God trying to teach me by leaving me in this situation?" or "What character qualities is God trying to grow in me?"

The Lord told Jeremiah, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable thing you do not know." We pray, inviting God to respond to us and feeling assured that he will, but sometimes his answers are "unsearchable"-they are beyond the scope of our human knowledge. 

It was two years before our "for sale" sign was finally replaced with a "sold" banner. It was a long stay in God's waiting room. 

-Karen Ehman 

{Jeremiah 33:3}

Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come.

Great and unsearchable things-

that's what God promised to tell Jeremiah. 

When we call to God, he also tells us great and unsearchable things. Like what? you may wonder. Like a depth of love that would motivate him to send his Son to die in your place. Like unending supply of his mercy and grace available to you today. 

Like what he's doing in this world and how he wants to use you in his plan. For many of us, the problem is that we think prayer is an exercise in talking. But to hear great and unsearchable things, we must also be listening.

{Psalm 38:15}

For I am waiting for you, O Lord.

You must answer for me, O Lord my God.

 

{Isaiah 55:6-13}

6 Seek the Lord while you can find him.

Call on him now while he is near.

7 Let the wicked change their ways

and banish the very thought of doing wrong.

Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them.

Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.

8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.

“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so my ways are higher than your ways

and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

10 “The rain and snow come down from the heavens

and stay on the ground to water the earth.

They cause the grain to grow,

producing seed for the farmer

and bread for the hungry.

11 It is the same with my word.

I send it out, and it always produces fruit.

It will accomplish all I want it to,

and it will prosper everywhere I send it.

12 You will live in joy and peace.

The mountains and hills will burst into song,

and the trees of the field will clap their hands!

13 Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow.

Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up.

These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name;

they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.”