Maybe I’m the only one, but for the longest time, I had the most inaccurate view of God. After years of unanswered prayer, I was convinced that I had to lower my standards and start praying more “realistically” because what I was praying for was too much. Did you catch that? “Realistically” as if I was asking something of a human rather than the almighty God of the universe who quite literally can bring the dead to life and created everything I can see. Ok, Megan. I mean really, I genuinely believed God was going to give me “good enough.” I’m now convinced God is also, among many other things, the God of, “wanna bet?” because boy did he blow that view out of the water. God isn’t the God of “good enough,” but He is truly the God of “exceedingly and abundantly more”.
I say all this to tell you, no not just to tell you, to beg you, not to settle. Because when we get right down to it, in our heart of hearts we don’t want to settle. We want that "exceedingly and abundantly more" that God promises. I’m convinced of that; we want the best of the best, but what we don’t want is to wait. We’d rather have second best now than best of the best later. Because with waiting comes uncertainty and we don’t like that either. All of those things are fair and quite honestly valid. It takes a great deal of faith to step out and pray this audacious prayer not knowing if it’s even going to happen or when it’s going to happen. But what I’m telling you is that although it’s difficult, it’s worth it.
One time a few years ago, my roommate Heidi and I were single on Valentine’s Day and our other two roommates were either engaged or married. One of our roommates, Lauren and her fiancé, Jamie, decided to cook us a nice steak dinner to honor us and encourage us because well they’re just great friends. That night after church before our dinner, the church was serving pizza to everyone as they always did on Saturday nights. It was around dinner time so Heidi and I were hungry, but we knew that we were going right home to have the dinner we were promised. I distinctly remember having a conversation with her about whether or not we were going to eat a slice of pizza knowing full well we had a better tasting and more nutritious meal ahead of us.
Isn’t how that works in our lives with God though? We know what He’s promised us and what we are worth, but we’d rather settle to satiate the hunger now rather than sticking it out for a better option in the future.
Ultimately Heidi and I chose to “wait for the steak,” which we have since coined as a metaphorical statement for all areas God is asking us to wait in. But I’m glad we did because man was that steak better than crappy Dominoes pizza.
What I’m begging you to do is wait. Wait for the job you are praying for, wait for the quality of man/woman that you are praying for, wait for that child you are praying for, wait for your calling, wait for your breakthrough. Do not settle for second best just because the timeline isn’t adding up with yours. Because what you will realize on the other side is that your idea of the best isn’t even fully what God has for you. You’ll realize that you thought you knew what you wanted only to find out that God knew all the more. God is not the God of “good enough” and it’s honestly an insult to His character to think of Him that way. He is truly the God of “exceedingly and abundantly more.” So keep praying. Even when it hurts, keep praying. Even when you have days where you want to settle, keep praying for more than what you are willing to settle for. Do it intentionally. Pray audacious prayers and kick the enemy in the face with every single one. And on the days where you don’t think "exceedingly and abundantly" is possible, remind yourself of who God is. Remind yourself that when Jesus fed the five thousand He didn’t just have enough for one meal for everyone. No, everyone had all they could eat AND they had tons of baskets left over. Remind yourself that when Abraham and Sarah were barren, they didn’t just have one descendant. No, they had quite a few kids and their descendants numbered more than the stars in the sky.
Our God has an unbroken track record of faithfulness. So you can bet against him answering your prayer, but I’d advise against it because he’s never failed a human and he’s not going to start with you.
“Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare or ask or even dream of – infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.” Ephesians 3:20 (TLB)
