Devotionals

Not Missing a Thing

by Chandra Christie
08/11/23
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How many times do we come before the Lord and beg Him that we may not miss a thing He has for us?  Do our hearts truly long to do His will? Are we honestly evaluating our hearts cry may be more centered on experiencing His goodness, and more specifically, His blessings?
I ended my quiet time one morning praying earnestly not to miss a thing He has for me. I long to serve Him so that I will feel worthy, useful, and accepted.  I have been praying I will not miss ‘a thing’ He has for me so that I can receive those deeply craved words, “Well done my good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).   But as I was praying a convicting thought emerged, “Do you really know what you are praying?” I sat back, paused in my pleading, and thought for a moment.  My prayers are uttered from my heart to the Lord’s ears and are mere words that falsely minister to my human flesh need that my works will get kudos from the Lord.
My prayers are guided by a season of suffering, of intense desperacy for relief.  Could it be that suffering is one of those things that the Lord has for me?  When suffering knocks at the door of my life I pout, complain, resist, get mad, and blame sovereign God.  Yet, my prayer has been to not miss a thing.  My child-like responses are becoming the obstacles to which God has provided to take me deeper into a treasured knowledge of Him and His attributes.  In sinking into despair and anger, I am actually resisting the answer to my prayers that my heart truly longs for!
Oh how narrow and worldy is our vision.  We have the simple belief that God is rich in love, and that His grace and love carries us on this journey.  Because of those qualities, we blindly ignore our heart bent requests come from only wanting good things, such as comfort, ease, prosperity, a sense of settledness.  We resist suffering, fight it, and call it evil.  Not to be misunderstood, God’s original plan was not suffering, but it is here through the fallenness of man and, yet, He invites us to share, fellowship, and join Him in the suffering of His beloved Son.  I conclude, “this is one of those things” He has perfectly crafted for us.
At times I get frustrated with my humanness.  My heart does want to be joined with Him, for His breath to be my breath, but my frailty is always getting in the way.  I truly do not want to miss a thing and He responds by saying, “Ok, trust Me then, in all things!”
What an enormous calling!  It requires complete surrender of what I constitute as good, what seems right, and righteous.  I observe Paul’s passion and my heart receives wise counsel:  “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead.  I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that, in one way or another, I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” (Philippians 3:10-11)

My heart is encouraged by the correction.  I embrace suffering in the strength He provides and I am drawn deeper and deeper still into the Father’s love.