Doesn’t it seem our life is full of questions we don’t get answers for?  Questions for which we get answers we don’t like?  It sometimes seems like we get more answers we don’t like then answers we do.  We ask and ask and ask but the answer never changes.  My 8 year old will ask for something, get a no, and ask again.  Even after we tell him "the answer is not going to change" he still sometimes asks again.  Then there are the times we tell him "wait not now".  He hasn’t yet learned the patience to just wait, so he wants to know exactly when, or he asks "is it later yet?" to try and speed things along.  Though this is highly bothersome when the question has to deal with an 8 year old getting something, or when we are leaving to go somewhere, the only real consequence it might have is the one his parents are going to give him for not stopping.

When it comes to more serious issues, or bigger questions in life, not being willing to live with the answer God has given us can lead to more serious consequences.  When we have been given an answer from God that we are not particularly fond of we have a choice to make.  We can behave like a child who asks again and again in hopes of changing an answer that won’t change, or understand that God knows what He is doing.  Jeremiah 29:11 says "’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’" (Jer 29:11 NIV )  If God knows the plan, and that plan is designed to prosper us, then we should trust that plan.  Any answer He gives us is going to be in line with the plan He has.  It may not be one we understand, but it is one we can know is for our benefit.  The Lord is not going to harm us, so His decision is certainly not going to do so either.

Another answer we get is to wait.  Wait, not yet.  Should we be like the child who constantly asks and never has patience while waiting?  Does the Lord need reminding that He said "wait, not now"?  To say it sounds ridiculous, that the Lord needs reminding, but we sometimes act like we think its true.  Like the child who says to his parents "is it later yet?", we feel we need to tell God "I’ve been waiting long enough–get to it already".  Maybe not in those words, but in that attitude.  Yet it is better that we wait quietly, seeking Him, knowing the Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him.  Lamentations 3:25-26:

"The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;

it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD."   (Lam 3:25-26 NIV )

If there is an answer you have gotten from the Lord that you don’t like, remember, He has plans to prosper you.  He is not going to harm you.  If the answer was no, remember that even if you don’t understand the plan, it is a plan that is meant for your good.  If it was a "wait", seek the Lord in the waiting.  It is in the seeking that we discover how we need to be molded so that He can change the "wait not yet" to a "yes".  When we allow God to continue to mold us despite the fact that we get answers we don’t like, we show Him that we trust Him, and that we have faith in His promises.