I often have conversations with people who say “but God never…”

Sometimes it is, “I have tried talking to God, a lot, but God never answers.”

Or “But God never says anything.”

Or “but God never lets me know what to do.”

Or “but God never healed my mom/dad/relationship/child/heart/family/church.”

I hesitate to talk about this kind of conversation in a public setting like you and you and I have here at 300wordsaday.com. Any time I start to talk about prayer and answers to prayer, I am fully aware that some of you, maybe all of us, have examples of “but God never.”

For a minute, while we’re drinking this cup of coffee, let’s look at some things that might be getting in the way. Notice that I say might.

1. When you are talking to God, do you ever stop talking and listen? I’m sure you do. But some days there is a big difference between talking to and talking with. Talking with means listening to the other person.

2. When you say “but God never”, do you actually mean “but God never does what I want him to do” or even, “but God didn’t do what I wanted him to do that last time I asked”? Because those are three different statements. The first means never. The second means that we’re trying to run everything and God apparently doesn’t agree. The third means that we’re dealing with a bunch of hurt around something that happened.

We’ll talk more about some more things in the future. For now, though, if you haven’t stopped to listen, try it. Ask God for wisdom, for example, as James says, and then listen. And if you are trying to run the universe, stop. And if you hurt, I’ll talk to God for you for a bit.

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Here’s a video version of this post: But God never