Does everything ALWAYS goes exactly the way you want it to?
Do things ALWAYS turn out exactly the way you want them to?
Do you ALWAYS get exactly what you want?
Well sometimes, the path of life takes unwanted, unpleasant detours from what we want, doesn’t it?
Now, more often than not, unwanted, unpleasant detours are the result of our own:
Willful ignorance … when we had plenty of opportunity to learn better but refused to embrace learning opportunities.
Foolishness … when we could have been smart and wise … but we willfully chose not to be smart or wise.
Stubbornness … when we would rather hurt our own self than give way to goodness with or for others.
Rebelliousness … when we know better than to do something … when we know not to over-do something … when we know not to under-do something … but we rebelliously do harmful, damaging, destructive things anyway.
Negative attitude … when we refuse to positively manage our own mind, attitudes, and feelings … and instead LET ourselves be negative, down, depressed, sad, unhappy, etc.
Hatefulness … when we choose to be hateful, spiteful, vindictive, etc. because we want to hurt another person.
Negative faith … when we hold so much conviction and belief about something unwanted and unpleasant … that our negative faith obligates God to give us something He never intended for us.
Moreover, nowhere does the Bible teach that we should just lay back and passively, mindlessly want or expect God to do everything for us … or give us everything we want … with no learning, thinking, or effort on our own part.
The Bible bears out … and experience bears out … that God predominately designed us and life so that we are free moral agents who are free to make our own choices and selections … who are free to pursue our own interests … who are free to learn whatever we want … and who are free to act and work as we see fit.
Of course, we know that we should do all of our choosing, selecting, pursuing, learning, acting, and working in a wise, God-considering, God-honoring, God-pleasing manner … but for the most part, we are free to be wise … and we are free to be foolish … we are free to honor God and follow His precepts … and, we are just as free to not honor God or follow His precepts.
And, life bears out that the wiser we are in our choosing, selecting, pursuing, learning, acting, and working, the more successful, pleasant, and enjoyable our life is … and the less-wise we are in these things, the less successful, less pleasant, and less enjoyable our life is. And so, to a large degree, the success or failure of our life is our own free-will handiwork.
In other words, God will LET us bless our own selves … and He will also LET us destroy our own selves … or anything in between. That is the function of free-will-agency that God has designed and ordained for humanity.
However, there ARE those times when our life seems to take a detour … there are times when no matter how good and how wise we have been … we find ourselves on an unwanted, unpleasant detour.
I am talking about those detours where…
• You find yourself in non-ideal circumstances that are outside of your control…
• You feel stuck and it feels like you are doing nothing and going nowhere…
• You are wanting to do good works but cannot for certain reasons…
• You are doing your best to do right and good … and things still go bad…
Here is the question I would like for us to answer for ourselves: Why does God send us on these detours into unwanted circumstances or conditions when that is not what we want?
Why God sometimes sends us on unwanted, unpleasant detours…
Psalm 25:12 – What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he (God) teach in the way that he (God) shall choose. (In general, the sooner we learn the lessons that God wants for us to learn, the sooner we will be free to move forward … and the longer we take to learn the lessons, the longer we will be on the detour. We can even forget the lessons and get to take more unwanted, unpleasant detours if we insist upon it.)
Isaiah 32:17 – And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. (Sometimes, a detour is about bringing greater peace, quietness, and confidence into our life.)
Philippians 1:12 – But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;
Genesis 50:20 – But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
John 9:1-3 – And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
Jeremiah 17:10 – I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (In other words, God sometimes puts us on a detour to see if we will be faithful to Him … and when we prove faithful, He gives blessings to us accordingly.)
Genesis 22:10-12 – And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. (Sometimes, God wants to know if we are willing to obey him in hard things … or if we are willing to give up that which is most important to us. Sometimes, God wants to know if we love Him above all else.)
The sampling of scriptures above illustrate just some of the many positive, beneficial reasons God sends us on a detour that at first seems unwanted and unpleasant.
Consider these Biblical situations…
Exodus 1:22 & 2:1-10 – Moses in the ark
• A killer is in rule … and his rule is, “Kill all the male Hebrew children!”
• Some people picture the ark containing Baby Moses floating down the river … until it was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter. Had this been what happened, we should recognize the ark went in a direction that Moses’ family did NOT want it to go … they undoubtedly wanted it to go to safety … but instead, it went to the house of the killer … Pharaoh … but God had a plan of deliverance for many.
• The Bible actually states that the ark was hidden in some tall grass at the edge of the river … in which case we can be SURE that Moses’ parents did not hide him in a place where he would be easy for the killer to find him … we can be sure that Moses was hidden in a place where his family thought he would be safe … and yet, right off the bat, Moses is found by the killer’s own daughter … but we know from the story that God had a plan where He was going to use the killer himself to raise up a mighty man of God.
• The question is, will we stand strong in the Lord when our “ark” goes in some unwanted direction … or ends up in some undesirable place?
• When we are striving to do a good thing … just like Moses’ family was trying to save him … and circumstances and conditions go in a direction we don’t want to go … will we stand strong in the Lord?
Matthew 26:36-68 – Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
• Jesus gave a heart-wrenching prayer in Gethsemane. If anything would move God’s hand, that prayer would surely do it, right?
• Moreover, Jesus prayed earnestly and sincerely for several hours.
• Our expectation is that when we pray … especially when we pray a sincere prayer … and when we pray for an extended period of time … that God IS going to answer our prayers in exactly the way we want Him to.
•But, Jesus’ prayer meeting in Gethsemane ended “badly”.
• After His prayer meeting, He was hauled off in chains … He was spit on … He was cruelly beaten … He was humiliated and embarrassed … but we know that God had a plan … specifically, a plan to reconcile you and I to Him through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• The question is, will we stand strong in the Lord when our prayer meeting ends and what seems like disaster follows?
The conclusion…
When you find yourself on an unwanted, unpleasant detour from how you would like life to be…
• Realize that God is working a great plan that includes YOU…
• Understand that God is doing good things FOR you and THROUGH you…
• Understand that God has important good that He wants to bring about and He has chosen to involve YOU…
• Understand that God has put YOU in a certain place so that specific souls can be reached…
Scriptures to help us through unwanted, unpleasant detours…
Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Isaiah 58:11 – And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Isaiah 43: 19 – Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:2-3 – When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour:
Thoughts to keep in mind when we are on an unwanted, unpleasant detour…
We have to be careful because when we find ourselves on a detour, it is easy to start thinking along the lines of…
• Is God even real?
• God doesn’t care about me.
• God’s not watching out for me.
• God has left me and abandoned me.
• God’s too busy elsewhere … He doesn’t even know about what I am dealing with.
• Apparently, I am not a good enough Christian … or God would be answering my prayers.
• God evidently plays favorites … because He answered another person’s prayers … but not mine.
Of course, these are exactly the kinds of thoughts that satan wants us thinking so that we will get discouraged or angry and walk away from God of our own volition.
But, what we have to remember is that our belief, trust, faith, and confidence has to be in God’s sovereignty … in who God is … in God’s identity as Creator of all things and Ultimate Judge of all people … rather than in what God does or does not do in a given situation.
IF our walk with God depends upon Him doing things on demand for us … IF our faith in God depends upon things turning out the way we want them to … then we have not truly submitted ourselves unto God.
IF our spirituality rises with what God is doing … and falls with what God is not doing … then we are going to be a spiritual yo-yo.
But, WHEN we hold our integrity towards God … based upon His sovereignty … independent of what He is or is not doing … THAT IS WHEN WE FIND … just as men and women throughout all time have found … that God is VERY close to us and He is POWERFULLY involved in our lives.
When it SEEMS that God is uncaring and uninvolved, it is only because we have been temporarily blinded to what He is doing FOR us and THROUGH us.