Overcoming the Thought that God Let Me Down
Navigating Spiritual Disappointment – Part 1
I Prayed and God Let Me Down – Part 5
There is one thing I want to point out using four examples from the Bible. These examples and unique scenarios give us key takeaways that will help us not only overcome the thought and idea that a person can pray, and God will let me down. In addition to that, these examples will help us take prayer to the next level as we face similar circumstances. Let’s get started.
Moses – God Answered with a Caveat.
Example number one is Moses. Moses’ experience teaches us that God will answer, but with a caveat. Have you considered that the answer to your prayer comes with a caveat, a restriction, or an action almost like an if-then statement? If you do this, then this will be the outcome? It is easy to mistake this answer as being a “no” if we are unwilling to fulfill the caveat associated. Let me tell you what happened to Moses.
Moses, the leader who led them out of their bondage and captivity in Egypt, and the children of Israel, found themselves in the wilderness for many years. While eager to reach their destination, they would murmur and complain. This is the picture that the scripture paints of them as they wander around and settle at various places en route to their “promised” land. They grew very disgruntled. Here it is with all that transpired in their miraculous deliverance, they could not stop complaining against Moses and against God. Their complaints and this murmuring found its way to Heaven where God was. He heard their cries, their complaints. With all He had done them, instead of appreciation, He was given complaints, whining, grumbling, and murmuring. As a result, God sent snakes into the land.
The snakes, sent into their camp, their territory, would strike with a fatal bite to random people. When Moses did something different, he didn’t settle with it, he prayed. That is important. If you do not pray, you should not be surprised if God does not intervene. This is worth repeating. Moses, in response to their distress, prayed. As I mentioned earlier, this is important. If you are not careful and prayerful, you can allow things to happen to you like a pandemic, a sickness, a history of health issues within a family, financial situations, etc. Your inaction as it comes to prayer could allow negative things to impact your life and relationships. Moses prayed for these snakes to be taken away. However, what he got back from God was to take action.
Moses had to create a replica of the poisonous snakes and attach it to a pole. Then everyone who was bitten that looked upon it would be healed from their snake bite. Now think about this for a moment. Moses prayed for the snakes to be eliminated from the camp, but instead he had to take this action to create a replica so that people who were bitten would look upon it to be healed. You would think that God’s answer would be just to remove the snakes. He did not do that. Rather, God answered with a caveat.
Just like you and I, Moses and the children of Israel, could have felt like God said “no” and He let them down, but rather He said “yes” I will take care of the problem. God’s answer had a caveat, though. If a person was bitten by a snake, God put something in place that would heal them. [1] How many times have we missed out on an answered prayer because we missed the answer that had been given? In other words, God answered, but it had a caveat. You needed to do something that you failed to do. In the case of the Israelites, if they had been bitten, they needed to take a step. They would have to go to where Moses was, the person who spoke to God, and put their eyes on this object so that they could receive the healing. The caveat was this. They would have to go get their healing. How many times have you prayed, and God asked you to do something, you did not do it, your prayer was not answered, and you felt like God let you down? Just because you feel like your prayer was not answered, stop placing the blame on God. That blame falls elsewhere.
We will pick up the next examples next week.
[1] Numbers 21:6-9 NLT, Bible.com, accessed November 17, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/NUM.21.6-9.NLT
All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.
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