I have observed when people pray for good things to happen, almost all pray for their subjective versions of “good.”
I get it. We often associate God’s blessing with our personal feelings of pleasure.
I want to propose a question to wrestle with. Is it possible for God to bless you with something difficult or even painful?
I am not implying that God is the author of evil. I am proposing that God can purposely use hard things. Let me offer a few examples.
I heard the story of a man planning to have an affair. The night he was going to meet up with the other woman, the suspecting wife prayed God would save their marriage. The potential cheater was hit that night with an illness and unable to meet the other woman. It ended up humbling his heart and eventually their marriage was restored. Was the illness a blessing or a curse? He was embarrassed and physically miserable…
A man came into my office who had abandoned his wife and child. He was battling with depression. He wanted me to pray that God would take the depression away so he could get on with life. Like many, he was angry with God for allowing this pain. I proposed that it might be a gift of a second chance for humility. Could this be a divine wake up call that was forcing personal reflection? He was physically miserable…
I know countless people who have been humbled before God in times of financial struggle. Blessing or curse?
As a Christian, the ultimate win in this life is being right before God. Christians believe this life is preparation for the next. So if a hard situation makes you into the image of Jesus maybe it isn’t actually bad.
I want to propose the things that make your heart right before God are the best OBJECTIVE blessings.
If our focus is preparation for eternity then the draw of temporal pleasures will melt away in the wake of an eternal perspective. C.S. Lewis says it like this:
“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”