I need to make a confession.
Sometimes I think God needs my help. I like to tell Him what He should do, when He should do it, and exactly how I think He should do it.
Anybody else like me?
Years ago, my husband and I already had two little girls and were considering another baby. One morning, while driving to work, I prayed:
“Lord, we’d like a boy. A girl would be okay. But please, don’t give me twins.”
I’m sure God got a chuckle from my “order” that day, because nine months later, here’s what I got:
Boy-girl twins!
Looking back, that story makes me smile, but there’s something deeper about it that has stayed with me over the years. I was asking God for something very specific, and I had already decided what the acceptable answers were. I wanted a boy; I was willing to accept a girl, but twins were completely off the table.
As if I could hand God a list of acceptable outcomes.
Of course, God doesn’t work that way. And if I’m honest, I’ve found myself doing the same thing in much more serious situations. Maybe you have, too.
We Like to Tell God How the Story Should Go
Something I’ve learned is that while God hears every prayer we pray, He rarely follows our instructions. Sometimes that turns out to be funny. Other times, it doesn’t feel funny at all.
We ask God to heal a relationship, open a door, change our circumstances, provide an opportunity, or give us an answer. We may even pray with great faith and believe we know exactly what the answer should look like.
But life doesn’t always unfold the way we hoped.
And that can be one of the hardest parts of faith.
It’s one thing to trust God when the answer looks like what we wanted. It’s another thing entirely to trust Him when the door stays closed, the relationship doesn’t change, the opportunity doesn’t come, or the situation takes a turn we never saw coming.
I’ve had to learn that trusting God is not the same thing as getting God to agree with my plan.
Sometimes my prayers have sounded less like, “Lord, Your will be done,” and more like, “Lord, here’s what I think You should do.”
Maybe I’m not the only one.
What Happens When God’s Answer Looks Different?
I think one of the reasons unexpected answers can be so difficult is because we naturally want to understand them.
We want to know why.
Why did this happen?
Why didn’t God answer the way I prayed?
Why did the door close?
Why hasn’t the situation changed?
Why am I still waiting?
Those questions are incredibly human. I don’t believe God is threatened by our questions. Throughout Scripture, we see people wrestling with uncertainty, disappointment, grief, and confusion.
But there comes a point when I have to decide whether I’m going to keep demanding an explanation or whether I’m willing to trust the One who sees what I cannot.
That doesn’t mean I stop praying. It doesn’t mean I pretend everything is okay when it isn’t. And it certainly doesn’t mean I stop hoping.
It means I begin to loosen my grip on the outcome.
Trusting God When You Can’t See the Whole Picture
Trusting God doesn’t mean we understand what He is doing. It means we trust His heart even when we cannot see His hand.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” —Proverbs 3:5
That verse is beautiful when life is going well. But I think we discover what it really means when life doesn’t make sense. Because if I could understand everything God was doing, I wouldn’t need faith.
Faith asks me to trust what I know about God even when I don’t know what He is doing.
I may not understand the timing, but I can trust His character. I may not understand the circumstances, but I can trust His presence. I may not know what comes next, but I can trust that I don’t have to walk into the future alone.
There have been seasons in my life when I desperately wanted God to show me the entire plan. Instead, He seemed to give me enough light for the next step. And I’ve learned that sometimes that is exactly what faith looks like.
The Unexpected Season Is Not an Abandoned Season
Maybe you’re walking through a season you never would have chosen.
Maybe you’re waiting for something you thought would have happened by now. Maybe you’re watching someone you love make choices you wish they wouldn’t make. Maybe you’re facing circumstances that feel completely outside your control.
Or maybe you’re simply looking at your life and thinking, This is not how I thought my story would go.
Friend, an unexpected season is not an abandoned season. God has not forgotten you, and He is still working—even when His work is hidden.
I think we sometimes mistake silence for absence. When we don’t see movement, we assume nothing is happening. When we don’t have an answer, we assume God isn’t listening. But just because I can’t see what God is doing doesn’t mean He isn’t doing something.
There is so much happening beneath the surface of our lives that we will never see in the moment. Roots grow underground before we ever see a flower. Healing can happen slowly and quietly. Doors can close for reasons we may not understand until much later.
And sometimes, we may never understand the reason. That’s where trust comes in.
Release the Timeline
One of the hardest things for me to surrender is my timeline. I’m okay with trusting God – as long as He works on my schedule.
I want to know when the answer is coming. I want to know what it will look like. I want reassurance that everything is going to work out exactly the way I hope.
But God has never asked me to manage the timeline. He has asked me to trust Him.
So when I find myself trying to rush ahead, figure everything out, or control the outcome, I have to remind myself to pause.
Take a breath.
Pray.
And give it back to Him.
You don’t have to figure out your whole future today. Simply trust Him with your next step.
Maybe that next step is having a difficult conversation. Maybe it’s waiting. Maybe it’s letting go. Maybe it’s trying again. Maybe it’s resting when you want to fix everything.
Whatever it is, you can ask God for wisdom for today without demanding that He reveal everything about tomorrow.
What If God’s Way Is Different?
I think back to that prayer I prayed all those years ago: “Lord, we’d like a boy. A girl would be okay. But please, don’t give me twins.”
God answered that prayer in a way I never would have written down myself.
Boy-girl twins. And what a gift they turned out to be.
It reminds me that sometimes we are so focused on getting the answer we asked for that we forget God may be writing a story we could never have imagined.
That doesn’t mean every painful circumstance eventually makes sense. I want to be careful about that. Some things in life are genuinely heartbreaking, and we shouldn’t feel pressured to put a neat bow around them or pretend that the hard things don’t hurt.
But even in the questions, God can meet us. Even in the waiting, He can sustain us. Even when the answer looks different than we expected, He will remain faithful.
You Can Trust Him With What Comes Next
If you’re in a season right now that doesn’t look anything like what you expected, I want to encourage you not to assume that God has lost sight of you.
He sees you.
He knows the questions you haven’t said out loud.
He knows the hopes you’ve been afraid to voice.
He knows the things you’re trying desperately to control because you’re afraid of what might happen if you let go.
And He is still God.
You don’t have to understand everything to trust Him. You don’t have to know how the story ends to believe that He is faithful. You don’t have to have the next five years figured out when God is simply asking you to trust Him with today.
So release your timeline. Loosen your grip. Stop trying to give God the instructions. And place the pen back into His hands.
His plans may not always look like yours. His timing may not match your calendar. His answers may surprise you. But in every season, you can trust the One who already knows how your story ends.
